MIAMI — A young Florida pilot who performed a miraculous emergency landing in the Atlantic Ocean — and lived to tell the tale — has flying in her blood, her proud dad revealed.
Faith Tenkley, 23, was on her way to the Bahamas to pick up her parents Saturday when she was forced to ditch her Piper PA-39 twin-engine plane off the coast of Boca Raton, Fla., when an engine failed and the landing gear broke.
“I have my pilot’s license also and she flies commercially,” Tenkley’s father Chad, 56, said when asked by The Post Monday if flying runs in the family.
“I’m really proud of her,” he added.
Chad confirmed that the 1971 plane his daughter was flying solo on Saturday belongs to his Fort Myers-based aviation company usoarflorida LLC, but said that Faith does not fly commercially for the firm.
Faith, who has had had her license for four years, said in a statement Sunday that she felt “incredibly fortunate” to have been able to swim away from the incident.
She had left Fort Myers just before 8:50 a.m. and was on her way to Bimini to pick up Chad and his wife Lisa when the plane ran into trouble around 15 miles off Boca Raton and less than an hour after taking off.
Stunning video footage captured the moment she cooly navigated the plane onto the water instead of crashing into people and buildings.
“After deciding a landing at Boca Raton Airport was not the safest option I continued to the coast,” Tenkley said.
“During the descent my primary focus was ensuring the safety of everyone around me. I was able to navigate toward open water, successfully avoiding all nearby buildings, paddleboarders, and swimmers (as well as individuals using metal detectors).”
Shocked witnesses on the beach told how they saw Faith carry out the feat without suffering any injuries.
“One second I’m spraying sunscreen on my kid. The next I’m looking up and saying, ‘Is that supposed to be happening?’” beachgoer Maria Marks told WPBF.
“They went for the shallow water which I think is kinda smart,” another witness, Alex Bester, told WPLG.
After Tenkley was able to make her way back to shore, crews removed the plane from the ocean.
She later reunited with her relieved parents after they flew back from the Bahamas with another plane.
“Fortunately, there was a flight out right away shortly after that, and we just flew into Miami and then met her,” her dad Chad said.
