The pilot whose plane ended up in the waters of Tampa Bay near the Bayside Bridge early Friday said he landed in the water to avoid traffic on the bridge.

Speaking Friday afternoon about his harrowing early-morning landing, 47-year-old pilot Anthony Marsh of Clearwater said he was having engine trouble while guiding his plane just after 2 a.m.

He then brought the Piper Fixed-Wing, single-engine plane down in a shallow area of water south of the bridge near the hump to avoid any potential vehicles on the bridge.

Salvage crews pulled the small plane from the water Friday afternoon.

"I really said to myself, so really, this is happening? Like, I’m gonna die?" asked Marsh.

Marsh says he was going about 80 miles an hour and trying to land at St. Pete Clearwater airport when his engine died.

He considered landing on the Courtney Campbell Bridge or Bayside Bridge.

"I realized that bridge or this bridge would mean I’d surely get killed and probably kill other people, so I knew I was going to get hurt either way so I chose to ditch in the water," said Marsh.

Marsh says he has eight years of experience flying that plane, but it's a totally different story when it's underwater and upside down.

"I hit the windshield and I think I might have blacked out for a second but I remember distinctly telling myself, if you black out, you're dead so you can't black out," said Marsh. "I remember definitely remember opening my eyes and thinking you have a chance to live now, so just start doing what you got to do."

There wasn't much time to react.

"I went down to the bottom which would be the windshield visor and I kicked it. I was kicking at it and I felt it give and I took, I couldn't breathe no more, so I actually breathed in water," said Marsh.

Marsh was rescued from the plane and taken to Mease Countryside Hospital. By Friday afternoon, only a bandage on his left hand gave hint to his earlier plane crash.

Pinellas Park Fire, St. Pete-Clearwater Airport Fire, Safety Harbor Fire Department and the Coast Guard also responded to the scene.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office is assisting the FAA with the investigation.