SEBAGO – Eyewitnesses to the plane crash on Sebago Lake last week are amazed that pilot Richard Randall made it out alive.
Randall, who owns the sprawling Randall’s Orchard in Standish and is a longtime pilot with a hangar full of single-engine planes, somehow survived a scary plunge Saturday onto the frozen surface of Big Bay 100 yards off Nason’s Beach & Campground in the town of Sebago.
Authorities from the National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating the cause of the crash, and the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office says the crash occurred when Randall caught a ski on the ice while attempting to land. But eyewitnesses say Randall was attempting to land in whiteout conditions on the lake’s surface and crashed when he saw the approaching shoreline.
At the time of the crash, Kyle Nason, a 19-year-old Sebago resident who was planning to go ice fishing with his father, Richard Nason, was about 3 feet off Nason’s Beach. He said he heard a plane’s engine in the distance and turned to look in the noise’s direction. He yelled, “Can you hear that?” to his father, who was standing at his pickup truck on shore gathering ice fishing gear.
About 15 seconds later, Kyle Nason said, they saw the plane flying low over tree-covered Spider Island, which juts into the lake just north of the beach. The plane looked like it was coming in for a landing, he said, but veered upward when it saw the shoreline.
“It flew about 25 feet over my head,” he said. “It was pretty close to me. I don’t think he realized he was near the shore.”
At the same time, Steve and Sue Sloan, owners of Round Table Lodge & Cottages that abuts the southern end of Nason’s Beach, were just about to call in an order for pizza. They said they then heard an engine sound and ran to a bay window that looks out over the lake.
“We were like, ‘What is that sound?'” Steve Sloan said. “We looked out and saw this airplane about 50 feet from our trees climbing, with the plane’s belly toward us. It swooped up and right back down again, into the lake. It was right there, though, not more than 50 feet from our trees. Not more than 150 feet from the house. It was crazy.”
Kyle Nason, down at the lake shore, watched as the plane swooped over his head, veered upward and to the left to avoid the tree line. But, apparently unable to maintain its lift due to lack of speed, the plane crashed nose-first into the lake about 200 yards from shore. The Nasons watched as the plane bounced once and slid about 20 yards.
“He hit so hard, it broke the right wing off,” Kyle Nason said. “I don’t know how he didn’t break through. There couldn’t have been more than 3 inches of ice out there.”
Richard Nason immediately called 911, as did Sue Sloan. He then grabbed a rope out of the truck and, with his son, approached the plane, not knowing what they would find. Steve Sloan, meanwhile, donned his snow pants, grabbed a first aid kit and headed out the back door onto the ice.
“Because of the ice, we were hoofing it out there, without running,” Kyle Nason said. “I think we were feeling that it was better to get out there slowly than not to get there at all.”
After a few minutes the father and son duo were at the plane. Sloan joined them after another few minutes.
“I wasn’t sure what we’d find when we got there,” Kyle Nason said. “My adrenaline was pumping. But when we got there the pilot was talking and we helped him out of the plane. He was trying to sit up but couldn’t. His back was hurting.”
Richard Nason then helped Randall exit the cockpit. The pilot was able to help get himself out, a sign to the rescuers that Randall wasn’t paralyzed. The Nasons wanted to get Randall as far away from the plane as possible because they did not know if it would blow up. But they were only able to drag the pilot a few yards due to his back pain. Kyle Nason said Randall also had a severe gash on his forehead that was bleeding profusely.
As they waited for Sebago rescue personnel to arrive, Sloan asked the pilot what had happened, but Randall said he couldn’t remember.
“He was in good spirits, though,” Sloan said. “He was joking, saying something like he’s had worse injuries and that he had broke his back a few years ago.”
Sloan theorizes that Randall wasn’t prepared for the blizzard-like conditions that cropped up late Saturday afternoon. Sloan said the engine sounded OK as Randall roared past his lakefront home and that the quickly falling snow and sleet “had probably gummed up his flaps and he had just lost all visibility. But Dick did very well to miss our house. I want to thank him for that.”
Once on the scene, Sebago rescue personnel strapped Randall to a sled and brought him onshore to a waiting ambulance. Randall was transported to Bridgton Hospital, then later transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where, as of Wednesday, he was listed in fair condition.
Randall owns Randall’s Orchard, a 400-acre apple orchard that supplies apples to local supermarkets and offers pick-your-own in season.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, which concluded its initial examination Monday before handing over the case to the NTSB, Randall was flying a three-seat 1947 Piper PA-12 capable of a maximum of 82 mph.
FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salic said the plane, which was registered to Air Ads Inc. in Standish, is in a “private hangar off the lake” awaiting NTSB investigation, which she said could take several months.
A Piper single-engine aircraft piloted by Richard Randall of Standish crashed nose-first onto the Sebago Lake ice near Nason’s Beach & Campground. Miraculously, Randall survived and is listed in serious condition at Maine Medical Center. (Staff photo by John Balentine)Send questions/comments to the editors.
