Video shows young female pilot, 23, swimming off after surviving emergency water landing

A young Florida pilot was able to swim away from a dramatic water landing in the Atlantic Ocean off Boca Raton on Saturday in a video captured by a beachgoer.

A lifeguard reached Tenkley within about a minute after the plane went down near 250 South Ocean Blvd., followed closely by a Boca Raton Ocean Rescue fire boat, according to local authorities.

Tenkley, who Fox News Digital has reached out to for comment, has declined media interviews outside of Gulf Coast News' Peter Busch. He reported she wanted to clear up misinformation that it was a male pilot rescued by a female surfer instead of vice versa.

"Faith was wearing a long skirt over a bikini. She took off the skirt to swim to shore. People on the beach saw a woman in a bikini and assumed she was a surfer helping the male pilot."

Tenkley, who was the only person on board, had departed Page Field in Fort Myers and was headed to Bimini in the Bahamas to pick up her parents, she told Gulf Coast News.

She was taken to a hospital as a precaution and no injuries were reported, according to Boca Raton police.

About 15 miles west of Boca Raton, Tenkley began experiencing mechanical issues and initially planned to divert to Boca Raton Airport. But the landing gear then malfunctioned, and she feared a hard runway landing could ignite the recently refueled aircraft.

Witnesses watched the low-flying plane descend over the busy beach before it landed in the water.