Two kayakers helped save an elderly pilot who crashed onto an icy creek.

The dramatic rescue was captured on the body-worn camera of Anne Arundel County Police Department officer Elizabeth Myers, who can be seen getting into a kayak and using a screwdriver to pull herself over the ice towards the scene of the crash on 26th December.

Debris including a plane wheel can be seen scattered across the ice.

A short while later, a Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police boat turned up and pulled the sole occupant of the plane to safety.

The pilot – identified as Steve Couchman, 71, of Prince Frederick, Maryland – was transported by ambulance to Anne Arundel Medical Center, where he is receiving medical treatment for injuries sustained in the crash.

The plane involved was a Piper Cherokee single-engine plane.

The crash happened shortly before 10.30am in the morning, and Maryland State Police from the Glen Burnie and Annapolis Barracks were dispatched to the scene following a report of a plane crash near Lee Airport in Edgewater, Maryland.

The preliminary investigation indicates that moments after the pilot took off from Lee Airport, the engine of his plane began sputtering.

Witnesses told police they had heard the sputter and, shortly thereafter, had heard the plane crash into Beards Creek.

The two civilians, together with the police officer, used three kayaks to reach the scene of the accident and help the pilot as the plane sank.

When the first kayaks arrived, he was standing on the wing and was then able to use the kayak to stay out of the water.

None of the kayakers were injured during the rescue operation.

Anne Arundel County Fire Department Lt Jennifer Macallair praised the kayakers, who he said had helped save Couchman from developing hypothermia.