LEICESTER, Mass. – Three people were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries and a dog was rescued after a small plane crashed in a field in Leicester, Massachusetts on Tuesday.
Fire fighters, medical personnel and a couple of recreational snowmobilers were among those who supported the rescue effort.
Fire and medical crews slowed down by deep snow were assisted by recreational snowmobilers Bryce Giggey and his son Mitchel, who led rescuers to the crashed plane and transportation equipment.
“We were just glad we were there to help,” said Bryce Giggey on Wednesday morning in an interview with Worcester Telegram & Gazette, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Mitchel, 16, added, “We looked like a normal airplane. We found it low. Then they just disappeared as if by accident. Then we heard a bang. “
The giggeys raced toward the area of the fall. They found a damaged plane on a bed of fresh snow.
“You’re in luck,” added Bryce Giggey. “You don’t see a plane crash often and people are alive.”
Bryce Giggey said he helped a male passenger who was injured in the shoulder.
Firefighters and rescue workers transported an injured passenger, said Bryce Giggey.
The pilot got off the plane alone, said Bryce Giggey. He was brought onto the street on the snowmobile by Mitchel Giggey, who also transported a rescue worker with the dog.
The crashed plane, a 2014 single-engine Piper, remained in a snow-covered field in Leicester on Wednesday morning. Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Aeronautics Division of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation will examine the aircraft before it is towed away.
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The three people on the plane were able to get out alone and were taken to hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, according to police and fire departments in Leicester. One of the three was carried out of the forest in a Stokes basket to transport the victims over rough terrain.
The identity of the people on board the aircraft was not immediately disclosed.
The plane stopped near a house. It appears that residents were not home at the time of the crash.
The crash landing made a loud noise heard by a group of people sledding nearby. Brian Pawlowskis, who was part of the group, initially believed that the noise was caused by snowmobilers in the area.
“But then about three cruisers stopped and asked me if we had seen a plane crash,” Pavlovskis told Telegram & Gazette. “We told them we didn’t see anything but heard it and pointed in the direction we heard it.”
The plane took off from Martha’s Vineyard Airport, according to the USA TODAY Network’s Cape Cod Times.
State and environmental police and the Federal Aviation Administration were called on site.
Contributors: Mike Elfland, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
