The occupants of a small plane that made an emergency crash-landing in the southbound lanes of Interstate 295 in Bowdoinham on Tuesday will live to tell the tale.

The crash occurred at about 10:15 a.m. The single-engine 1947 Cessna was flying to an airfield in Turner when the engine failed, according to a state trooper at the scene. The plane collided with a guardrail off the breakdown lane.

According to Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland, the pilot, John Gayley, 59, of Bowdoin told troopers he had taken off from the Bowdoinham airfield and the engine stalled when he attempted to switch fuel tanks.

Gayley landed the plane in the southbound lanes, against traffic, and the plane then veered into the guardrail. One vehicle had to swerve to avoid the plane as it landed.

Gayley walked away from the wreck, according to McCausland, but sustained facial injuries and was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland. A passenger, Rodney Voisene, also of Bowdoin, sustained a minor injury to an arm and was taken to a local hospital.

As of noon Tuesday, southbound traffic had been reduced to one lane in the area of the crash but was moving.

Firefighters responded from Bowdoin, Bowdoinham and Richmond, and cleaned up fuel spilled from the plane. A representative of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection was also on scene.

The FAA was expected to respond to the scene to investigate. A wrecker removed the plane from the road in the afternoon.

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