Nine months after arriving in Hawaii, pilot Greg Harding made quite a splash Wednesday when he crash-landed a small plane in the ocean just off the beach in Mokuleia, avoiding beachgoers.

The longtime Alaskan pilot, 59, who had run out of fuel, had the single-engine plane lined up to land on the beach, but then saw about a dozen people on shore, "so I put it in the water."

Harding said he had been towing a glider and released it with a student and instructor onboard less than 10 minutes earlier at 3,000 feet altitude, when "the engine just quit," adding, "That’s all I’ll say."

However, Ana "Suzy" Gromacki, owner of North Shore Aircraft Leasing Co., which owns the plane, said the pilot ran out of fuel at Kaena Point and was trying to make it to the roadway.

He landed in the water because "he didn’t want to hurt anybody," she said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating and reported that the one-seat Piper PA-25-260 went down in the ocean west of the airport at 11:26 a.m. under unknown circumstances on its approach to Dillingham Airfield.

Fire Capt. David Jenkins said the pilot extricated himself from the plane, which had landed in about 5 feet of water. The fire personnel evaluated the pilot, who was uninjured, and notified the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the FAA and the Coast Guard.

The pilot used the tow cable attached to the plane to pull it close to shore and secure it to a signpost, Jenkins said.

As the plane was going down, Harding said he was trying to see what options he had.

He said he thought, "Won’t these people move out of the way?"

"You need a nice long stretch to land a plane," said Harding, who lives in Waikiki. So he opted for the water, and no one was in the area where he landed.

Harding, who flew planes for 40 years in Alaska, moved in December to Hawaii from Kotzebue and said this was the first time he’s had this happen to him.

"I half thought the plane might have flipped," he said. "That would have gotten a lot more exciting."

Gromacki said, "He did a good job landing," and that if it had overturned, he might not have survived.

Gromacki called the plane "totaled." She said Wednesday afternoon that people were trying to get the engine cranked up, but one hour sitting in salt water probably ruined it. There was a little damage to the tail and fuselage, and the cowling on the bottom of the aircraft was a little bent, she said.

Gromacki said she and her husband rebuilt the plane in 1998.

National Transportation Safety Board records show the plane had a forced landing in October 1974 in Roaring Springs, Texas, due to complete engine failure and received substantial damage.