Small plane crashes on Fire Island beach

A small plane crashed onto a Fire Island beach Monday afternoon, frightening beachgoers who saw it crash into the sand before finally stopping.

“I turned around and saw this plane coming straight at us, it was very low and it was wobbling a little bit,” eyewitness David New told CBS News of the single-engine Piper PA-28 that flew is crushed on the Atlantic beach. around 12:15 p.m.

“All of a sudden the nose hit the sand and it flipped over,” he continued. “We thought it was going to go down, but it went down again. It was, what, 50 feet from us?

Both people on board were OK — no injuries were reported, and New said both got out of the plane on their own.

The pilot experienced engine problems just before the hard landing, according to Newsday.

“They landed wherever they could land,” Ocean Beach Fire Chief George Hesse told the news outlet. “It was a light day at the beach.”

The plane is registered at a flight school in Nassau County, CBS said.

The Federal Aviation Administration will likely release a preliminary report on the incident on Tuesday.