STONINGTON, Maine — A Massachusetts couple escaped injury Tuesday when their single-engine plane crashed while landing at the Stonington Municipal Airport.
Carl Gulrich of Eastham, Mass., was piloting the Cessna 172 when he attempted to land in Stonington at about 11:15 a.m. Tuesday.
“Just as he touched down, he was forced to the side of the runway by a crosswind,” said Lt. Tim Cote of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department. “He came to rest nose first in a ditch.”
Neither Gulrich nor his wife, Mary, was injured in the accident.
Although the plane was off the runway, Stonington Town Manager Kathleen Billings-Pezaris closed the airport, which is owned and managed by the town, to traffic until it could be removed. The airport reopened around 6 p.m., Billings-Pezaris said.
There was no initial estimate on the damage to the plane. Reports, however, indicated that the damage was extensive.
“It looked like they got bounced around quite a bit,” Billings-Pezaris said.
The Federal Aviation Administration has begun an investigation into the crash. Two inspectors from the Portland office were at the airport on Wednesday to inspect the aircraft.
A preliminary report on the accident could be completed within a week or two, according to an FAA spokesperson in Massachusetts. The full investigation could take several months.