Overview

• Mark Finkelstein’s single-engine plane lost power about 13 minutes after departing Cape Fear Regional Jetport, leading to an emergency ditching near Oak Island Pier around 7:30 p.m.
• Town of Oak Island video shows the aircraft flip on impact before coming to rest mostly submerged with a small air pocket in the cabin.
• Responders from the Oak Island Beach Safety Unit, Oak Island Water Rescue and the Southport Fire Department reached the plane within minutes and extracted Finkelstein feet-first through the cockpit window in under 30 seconds.
• Finkelstein suffered only a leg laceration, was treated at a hospital and returned home, later publicly thanking named rescuers in a Facebook post.
• National outlets published footage and interviews on August 30 as the FAA continues its investigation with no public findings released.