David Lesh, former pro-skier and the snowmobiler who became infamous earlier this summer for snowmobiling in snowless Aspen wilderness areas, crash-landed his plane into Half Moon Bay off the California Coast on Tuesday. Lesh and his passenger were uninjured in the crash.
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Pilot Owen Leipelt, in a separate plane, caught the incident on camera. After filming the crash, Leipelt momentarily lost Lesh, but Lesh had his phone and was able to call Leipelt.
#NEW WATCH the moment the aircraft hit water. Pilot tells me he just got the plane a few weeks ago. He was in the middle of a photo shoot over the coast, when plane lost power. Says there was no real impact, he was able to skip the aircraft along the water. Amazing. #abc7now pic.twitter.com/Sedd5E4cRt
— Amanda del Castillo (@AmandaABC7) August 21, 2019
The founder of outerwear company Virtika was in California for a photo shoot of his new Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft he had just purchased a few weeks ago. Lesh and a second passenger were on their way to fly over the Golden Gate Bridge when the plane’s engine lost power. After unsuccessfully attempting to get the engine working again, the plane hit the water within about a minute of Lesh realizing there was a problem.
“It skipped along the water a few times. There was like no impact. We were totally fine,” Lesh told ABC7’s Amanda del Castillo. “Got the door open right away, we piled out. I grabbed my phone, grabbed some stuff to float with and we stood on the wing as long as the plane was floating which was probably 30 seconds or 40 seconds.”
#NEW Excuse the language, BUT moments before this video was taken, these two went down with their plane. Incredible!
No injuries, other than a few jellyfish stings.
Details 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼https://t.co/du3ta4kICe #abc7now pic.twitter.com/gChI2Mv68O
— Amanda del Castillo (@AmandaABC7) August 21, 2019
Leipelt immediately contacted the U.S. Coast Guard and Lesh and his passenger were rescued virtually unharmed. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash, saying that it “typically takes up to a year” to determine the cause of an accident.
