Six people are lucky to be alive after the plane they were travelling in crashed into water.
The quick-thinking pilot helped his passengers out of the plane before they swam to shore, after his single engine Piper Cherokee 6 crashed into a dam as it was preparing to land at Lakeside Airfield in north Queensland on Sunday afternoon, ABC reported.
The pilot has been praised for the way he ditched the plane, leading to only one minor injury of a passenger.
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Garry Poole, who runs Lakeside Airfield, heard the plane go down from his home and ran to see what was happening.
"I quickly shot out of the house and I noticed the plane was settled right on the lake which was quite amazing it was sitting there. It hasn't started sinking," he told ABC radio. "As soon as the exit doors were open it quickly started taking on water and it didn't take long for the plane to start going down. It was chaos there for a while."
Poole praised the pilot for making sure all the passengers were out of the plane safely. "We had six very lucky people. How on Earth they weren't killed I will never know," he added.
It is believed the plane's low wing may have given those on board more time to escape, as it is situated below the passenger cabin and might float momentarily on the surface of the water.
6 people walked away from this plane crash in NQld. Pic Garry Poole. @abcnews_qld @ABCnorthqld @612brisbane pic.twitter.com/S0fZNDxKbA— Shelley Lloyd (@shelleymlloyd) July 26, 2015