A dramatic crash landing off Boca Raton, Florida, ended with a remarkable outcome after a pilot safely put a small twin-engine aircraft into the shallow Atlantic Ocean.

The Piper PA-30 series aircraft crashed into the water near South Beach Park at about 9:40 a.m. Saturday. The 23-year-old pilot, Faith Tenkley, survived without injuries.

Tenkley said the aircraft belonged to her family and was flying from Page Field in Fort Myers toward South Bimini Airport in the Bahamas when trouble developed. About 15 miles west of Boca Raton, she experienced mechanical problems, including a failure of the right engine. The landing gear also broke.

She was cleared to land at Boca Raton Airport, but the aircraft was still carrying a substantial amount of fuel. Tenkley feared that attempting a hard landing on the runway could cause a fire.

Instead, she made a critical decision: put the aircraft down in the ocean.

As she approached the coastline, Tenkley had to avoid buildings and paddleboarders before finding a relatively clear area of shallow water. She then crash-landed the aircraft in the ocean.

Despite the violent-looking impact, nobody was injured.

Boca Raton Ocean Rescue, Boca Raton Police Department and a lifeguard quickly responded to the scene. A witness, Craig Sutton, captured video of the dramatic landing and shared it with Local 10 News.

By Sunday morning, recovery crews had removed the damaged Piper from the water near South Beach Park and loaded it onto a semi-truck.

What could have ended as a catastrophic accident instead became a remarkable story of emergency decision-making, with the pilot choosing the water to avoid a potentially dangerous fuel-fed fire on land.

The FAA is investigating the incident and the mechanical failures that preceded the crash.