Light aircraft crashes in sea off Porthcawl

A light aircraft has crashed into the sea off the south Wales coast near Porthcawl.

Pictures from the scene showed the small red and white plane in shallow water, between the lifeboat station and the Seabank Hotel on Tuesday morning.

Members of the public reported seeing what appeared to be the pilot being led from the site by coastguards, but their condition is currently not known.

Porthcawl RNLI and Coastguard crews were on the scene, and were joined by members of the police, fire and ambulance services.

In a statement, the RNLI said it received a callout at 9.22am and the pilot was seen by paramedics.

Eyewitnesses reported hearing the plane’s engine “spluttering” before seeing it crash-land.

Looks like a small aircraft has come down in #Porthcawl Pilot being attended by public but was walking. @PorthcawlRNLI shout on. Hoping everyone is safe 🙏 pic.twitter.com/95Qr0E25Iw

— Terry Sinnett (@TerrySinnett) June 13, 2023

Onlooker Terry Sinnett, who saw the incident unfold, tweeted: “Looks like a small aircraft has come down in Porthcawl. Pilot being attended by public but was walking. Hoping everyone is safe.”

He later tweeted: “Think I saw pilot being helped away from sea by the emergency services.

“Seems pilot has had a miraculous escape, thankfully.”

Chris Page, RNLI lifeboat press officer at Porthcawl, said: “RNLI volunteer crews never quite know what to expect when the call for help comes.

“We are trained to deal with every eventuality, but were incredibly relieved to arrive on scene to find the pilot was able to be safely recovered.

“This was a real multi-agency effort between the fire service, the Coastguard and the RNLI.”