Witnesses to a small plane crash jumped aboard kayaks on Monday and rescued the pilot from a frozen creek in Edgewater, Md., authorities said.

The rescue occurred before 10:30 a.m., when a Piper Cherokee single-engine plane took off from Lee Airport in Edgewater, according to Maryland State Police.

As soon as the plane took off, witnesses recalled hearing the engine sputter and seeing the plane crash into Beards Creek.

Two witnesses and an off-duty Anne Arundel County police officer, who had overheard a dispatch call about the crash over police radio, used three kayaks to skim across the ice-covered creek to reach the downed plane.

State police said the pilot, Steve Couchman, 71, of Frederick — who was the plane’s only occupant — got out of the cockpit and stood on a wing of the sinking plane as the kayakers approached.

He then grabbed onto their boats, which kept him afloat, as the plane went underwater.

He then grabbed onto their boats, which kept him afloat, as the plane went underwater.

Police officers from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources arrived in a boat soon after.

They cut through the ice and pulled Couchman aboard.

They cut through the ice and pulled Couchman aboard.