Ocean City Md. police say a small plane has crashed into the ocean in the resort town, and the pilot is presumed to be dead.
Mayor Rick Meehan told The Associated Press that the plane went down around 4 p.m., about 500 yards offshore at 130th Street, which is about a mile from the Delaware state line.
He said witnesses told police that the aircraft began spinning out of control and crashed into the ocean. He says the plane became submerged, and there is no remaining debris.
Meehan says it's believed that only the pilot was on board and that there are no survivors.
The plane crashed in full view of some alarmed beachgoers. "As the airplane was going up, he was going up high," said Stephen Drake, from Bel Air, Md. "Then he shut the engine off and came down and he was doing barrel rolls and just a death spiral. ...
"And he looked like he wanted to come up out of it, and the engine started to start and then it died again, and he went into another spiral down, and he was too low to pull up, and he just went in," Drake said,
Initial reports identified the type of plane, but the FAA said those reports are not yet confirmed.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Maryland state police are responding, including dive teams and state police helicopter searchers.