Surf City lifeguards Scott Meggitt and Charlie Osborne were on duty Saturday afternoon when they watched a banner pilot land his plane on the ocean’s surface with something of a thud before it flipped over once. The pilot, as they recounted, crawled out of the window to tread water until help arrived. It took Meggitt and Osborne about 2½ minutes to reach the pilot, who sustained minor injuries in the crash.
“In my head, it feels so slow, but it was fast,” Meggitt, 21, said Sunday evening as he and Osborne stood atop the Ninth Street beach access and discussed the events of the day before.
Around 3:20 p.m. Saturday, June 27, Cory Morris, of Newtown, Pa., dumped the banner over the Atlantic Ocean at Fifth Street and coasted for eight blocks before landing his aircraft on the water, where it sank at 13th Street, Surf City Police Chief Jack Casella said. Morris is a pilot for High Exposure Aerial Advertising, based in Woodbine.