Cockpit video shows emergency landing of WWII plane in D.C.

A cockpit video shared to YouTube this week shows the moment a pilot in a vintage WWII plane bails out of his formation and heads for safety.

The flight was part of the May 8 flyover of the nation's capital marking the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.

You see the pilot in a TBM Avenger open windows wider as dark smoke starts to fill his cockpit. "A 1500psi pinhole hydraulic leak vaporized in the cockpit, appeared like smoke, and prompted a decision to abort the flyover and land at Reagan DCA airport," text accompanying the video says.

Flights were stopped at National Airport during the show and the airport was prepared for such emergency landings.

Organizers of the Arsenal of Democracy: World War II Victory Capitol Flyover said all but one plane, returned to airports in Culpeper and Manassas, Va., as planned after successfully maneuvering over the most restricted airspace in the country. Fifty-six vintage planes participated in the event.

"It was in perfect formation with everyone else, then it broke heavily," said Andrew Shirley, who witnessed the emergency landing from Gravelly Point, a park at the end of the airport's runway.