Watch: Terrifying Moment As Plane Narrowly Misses Sunbather

A terrifying and unreal moment came to pass at a beach in Germany, when a small plane barely missed landing on a sunbather.

Unbelievable video caught the shocking moment as the small plane’s wheels grazed just inches above the man’s back. The death-defying near miss took place on the island of Dune in Germany’s Heligoland archipelago. 52 year old pilot Jurgen Drucker was flying in his Piper PA-28-181 Archer II when he decided to land the plane on one of the island’s three small airstrips, MailOnline reports.

Beach-goer Rainer Schmidt, also 52, caught what happened next on a video that has to be seen to be believed. “I was watching the planes come in to land,” Schmidt said. “I had seen five planes land before this one came in. I instantly realized that this one was coming in to land far too low. The others were at least [20 feet] high. It was so close to the man on the beach. The man was very lucky.”

The plane indeed was too low, and flew by mere inches above the stunned sunbather who kept himself flattened to the sand. After striking a fence near the sunbather, Drucker was able to land the plane safely.

Uwe Kaiser, who was also on the beach for the terrifying near-miss, spoke to GrindTV, saying that because of the landing field, not many beach-goers decide to sunbathe in the general vicinity. He elaborated on the man’s actions in the moment:

“The man who was almost hit was lying down and he turned over to look after seeing the plane coming and then instantly flung himself down in the sand as it crossed over him. It really was a close shave.”

Drucker contends that the near-miss “wasn’t one of my greatest moments in the cockpit.” The three runways on Dune are notoriously tricky to navigate, the shortest one being a seemingly impossible 848 feet. According to Drucker, he was unable to see the sunbather while landing the plane because the man was laying down. The pilot also said he is “very grateful it worked out well and I didn’t land on him.”

Drucker’s experience isn’t the only near miss to take place recently when planes are involved. As The Inquisitr previously reported, a 737 and a cargo plane almost collided in midair over Alaska’s Fire Island just weeks ago.

Despite the crash, Drucker’s plane wasn’t badly damaged, and he was able to fly home that same day. The sunbather unsurprisingly relocated after the Plane’s near-miss.

[Images via MailOnline]