An ultralight aircraft crashed Sunday evening in a wooded area off Porter Road in Fryeburg, police said.
Police Chief Joshua Potvin said the plane crashed into trees as the pilot – a 56-year-old man from Media, Pennsylvania – tried to make an emergency landing at the Eastern Slopes Regional Airport in Fryeburg.
Potvin said the pilot was flying his Aerolite 103 single-seat ultralight aircraft out of Leavitt Airport in Albany, New Hampshire, when his engine started to fail around 6 p.m.
Realizing he did not have enough altitude to make the runway, the pilot deployed his emergency parachute system, which helped slow the descent of the aircraft. However, the maneuver forced him to land in trees just west of the runaway in a wooded area off Porter Road.
The aircraft was damaged, but the pilot was not injured, according to Potvin, who did not release the pilot’s name.
“The pilot was extremely fortunate to escape this incident without injury,” Potvin said in a news release. “He has been flying planes since 2003 and this must have been a terrifying crash landing even for an experienced pilot.”
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