A preliminary investigation indicates that engine malfunction forced a float plane to land on a dirt road near Ross Lake in northern Piscataquis County last month. The pilot and passenger were slightly injured, officials said Friday.
Pilot Gary L. Norris of Augusta was flying his float-equipped Cessna 180B about 2,500 feet north of Ross Lake, also known as Chemquasabamticook Lake, on Sept. 19 when he reported hearing a “slight squeal” from the engine. Then it began to sputter, a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary investigation report said.
“About 1,500 feet during the subsequent descent, the engine and propeller ‘completely stopped,’” Norris told the Federal Aviation Administration investigator during a telephone interview that followed the crash.
By then Norris had determined that the plane would not make it far enough to reach the lake. He selected the road on which to land, but the right wing struck a tree limb about 60 feet above the ground and the plane slammed into the road, the report indicated.
He and his passenger, Robert Wheelock, suffered minor injuries and drove themselves to Millinocket Regional Hospital for treatment, Millinocket firefighters have said. Both wings and the fuselage of the plane were extensively damaged, the report indicated.
Investigators removed the engine from the plane and discovered that the No. 3 cylinder exhaust valve “was fractured at the stem” and the No. 3 piston was damaged, according to the report. The engine suffered no external damage in the crash.
Norris reported 1,058 total hours of flight experience. His float plane’s most recent annual inspection was completed May 24, 2013, at 4,013 total aircraft hours and the remanufactured engine accrued 605 hours of flight time when it crashed, according to the report.
The preliminary report is the first of three typically filed in crashes, which usually take about 1½ years to fully investigate, said Eric Weiss, spokesman for NTSB in Washington, DC.
The safety board investigated 1,297 aviation accidents in 2013, he said.