Dramatic video shows a small aircraft crashing into the Atlantic Ocean just minutes after taking off from a North Carolina airfield, sparking a major rescue operation.

The single-engine plane’s pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in the water after experiencing an engine failure and being unable to return to the Cape Fear Regional Jetport, or land on the crowded beach, the Oak Island Fire Department (OIFD) said in a statement .

In video of the crash, the plane is seen coming into land at speed on the ocean, before flipping over in the water, in terrifying scenes earlier this month.

Drone footage from rescuers shows the pilot, Mark Finkelstein, being pulled out by his feet through the windshield, after only being able to breathe a small pocket of air in the back of the cabin

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