Former Alaskan pilot dunks off Hawaii

[Float Pilot]

I do not have the full article. And I must go fly...

Pilot puts stricken plane down in ocean

A small aircraft runs out of fuel and then is flown into the sea just off Mokuleia

By Leila Fujimori

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Sep 25, 2014

Nine months after arriving in Hawaii, pilot Greg Harding made quite a splash Wednesday when he crash-landed a small plane in the ocean just off the beach in Mokuleia, avoiding beachgoers.

The longtime Alaskan pilot, 59, who had run out of fuel, had the single-engine plane lined up to land on the beach, but then saw about a dozen people on shore, "so I put it in the water.

[Grizzly 2]

A cool stick, but . . . run out of fuel?

[alexander]

If I remember correctly he was flying form the west coast?

[Mr. Pid]

Glider tow plane on Oahu north shore. Bad luck, good result. I wonder if the glider pilot and passenger watched it happen? I've done that glider thing there. Fun stuff.
http://seattletimes.com/html/travel/...goceanxml.html

[Float Pilot]

Sounds like he would have been just fine if there had not been people on the beach. The way the article is written it makes me wonder if he really did run out of fuel or if the company owner is just being quick to saddle to blame on the pilot and not mechanic failure.

Greg Harding, 59, considered landing the plane on either a road or the beach, but then he saw about a dozen people on shore, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported (is.gd/3Q58bL).

Harding said the engine “just quit” about 10 minutes after he released a glider, which had an instructor and student onboard,