Teen behind "brush with death" plane video describes frightening moments

When you first see the viral video that 17-year-old Tyler Dunn shot while on a Fourth of July hike with his family in Colorado to the Devil's Thumb in Grand County, it's hard not to wonder what the pilot was thinking as their plane careened straight toward the ground.

"It just must have been a face with death because in the video he literally pointed straight down like a tree," Dunn said. "Straight vertical."

The nosedive was caught on camera thanks to Dunn, who said he was only trying to get a video of the plane so close to the saddle of the mountain in the first place. Suddenly, as the plane started to dive, it became something much scarier.

"It was surreal," Dunn recalls. "It was like watching a movie."

Thankfully the plane pulls out of the nosedive mere feet from the ground, if that. The plane pulls back up, and the pilot is safe. Dunn said because the screen glare was so intense on his phone, he wasn't even sure what he had captured, but eventually saw the incredible video he now had in his procession. His dad ended up posting it to Facebook.

"The original reason we published the video in the first place was we thought, 'Maybe he'll want to see his near-death experience from a different perspective,'" Dunn explained.

The video garnered hundreds of thousands of views on social media and inspired aviation channels on YouTube like blancolirio to publish videos breaking down exactly what led up to the incredible moment.

The FAA told CBS Colorado Your Reporter in the mountains Spencer Wilson the report from the incident is still under investigation. As for Dunn, he says he's thankful this was the way the story ended.

"It was just a brush with death, and we're just really glad the person is okay."