VIDEO: Father, daughter saved by plane-deployed parachute when aircraft crashes in Hauppauge

HAUPPAUGE, Long Island (WABC) -- Amazing surveillance video captured the life-saving moment a plane fell from the sky and landed with a father and daughter inside on Long Island.

It was a father-daughter excursion that nearly ended in a disaster. The small plane Louis Obergh was piloting with his daughter inside lost engine power about 2,000 feet in the sky on Saturday.

Police say Obergh and his daughter were coming back from looking at colleges in Connecticut. They were heading back to Republic Airport in Farmingdale when they ran into trouble. The aircraft crashed on a grassy area of an industrial park in Hauppauge eight miles east of Republic Airport, shortly after 3 p.m.

The parachute is a lifesaving feature that makes the Cirrus SR22 unique.

When the engine sputtered to a stop on the small plane over Hauppauge, its emergency parachute opened, and helped guide it to a landing. It wasn't soft, but it was soft enough for Obergh and his daughter to make it out alive.

"We got lucky, very lucky. Never expected to ever have a problem like this," Obergh said.

But he must have considered it when he invested in the Cirrus, a single engine plane known for that parachute.

"5 alpha Romeo, we got a problem," he said over ATC. "Left turn, left down, we have an emergency."

Obergh radioed for help when his engine sputtered to a stop, but it was up to him to save himself by deploying that chute.

"He had to put the parachute out. He landed somewhere in the vicinity of the mid-field," ATC said.

The aircraft plopped down in a lawn at an office park in Hauppauge. Fortunately, it missed any buildings.

Father and daughter both survived with barely a scratch; there was just a small cut on Obergh's forehead.

Some questioned him about whether he'd ever fly again.

"We'll see. We'll see. It was a scary day," Obergh said.

The FAA and the NTSB continue to investigate.