STETSON, Maine — A Levant man walked away from a plane crash late Thursday afternoon virtually unscathed.
The pilot was treated at the scene and did not require a visit to the hospital, Sgt. Sean Hashey of the Maine State Police said Thursday evening.
In an interview later Thursday night, Ellery D. Batchelder Jr., 49, of Levant said he suffered a bruise on his ankle and a scratch on his hand.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s database shows the plane is owned by Batchelder.
According to Hashey, the pilot reported that he was forced to make a crash landing about 5 p.m. when the engine of his Kolb Mark III Classic, a small two-seater, cut out and lost power.
Batchelder said he had left Dexter Regional Airport earlier and had been flying for a couple of hours when the engine began to vibrate badly. He said he looked for the biggest clearing he could find and aimed to put the plane down there. He was in the woods for about 45 minutes before rescue crews were able to get to him, he said.
The pilot used his cell phone to call for help. While Batchelder had a general idea of his location, Hashey said rescuers were able to pinpoint his location, in a wooded area near a snowmobile trail off Hughey Road, using GPS coordinates from the pilot’s phone.
State game wardens used a snowmobile to get the man to the roadway, Hashey said. State police also were assisted by personnel from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department and firefighters from Stetson and Carmel.
Arlene Salac, spokeswoman for the FAA, said the Kolb Mark III Classic is an experimental airplane often built from kits. She said the FAA would send an investigator to the site on Friday. She said it could be months before a final determination regarding the cause of the crash is released by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Batchelder, a machinist, welder and mechanic who has been flying for more than 20 years, said this was not his first crash. About 15 years ago, he was involved in a crash in an ultralight plane from which he walked away.
“My wife says I’m Morris the Cat: I have nine lives,” Batchelder said.
Batchelder has been interested in planes since he was a child.“When I was a kid I had a remote-control airplane and they just kept getting bigger,” he said.
When asked if he would fly again, Batchelder didn’t hesitate.
“Oh yeah,” he said.
Batchelder said the plane is insured.