LAF: This may have been the same incident I have in mind. A chap was ferrying a Cessna 175 that hadn't flown in a long while from Sandown to Goodwood for maintenance. He suffered an engine failure and ditched so close to Southsea beach that bystanders were able to photograph the aircraft at the moment it entered the water — I still have a copy somewhere — and immediately alerted Coastguard and police. The pilot, who as I recall had only normal clothing on and no survival gear, used a plastic carrier bag as a flotation aid. He was very close to death when the SAR crew plucked him out, within waving distance of the beach. I spoke to him in hospital a day or two later and he was a very chastened chap and well aware of how lucky he'd been.