LOVELL – A former Fryeburg selectman was killed late Saturday morning when the float plane he was flying crashed into Kezar Lake and flipped over, submerging the fuselage, according to the Maine Warden Service.

Four passengers – a husband and wife and their two children – were also injured. Two of them were taken to Bridgton Hospital and two to Maine Medical Center in Portland, warden service spokesman Mark Latti said by phone late Saturday afternoon in Brunswick.

The names of the passengers in pilot Joseph Solari’s single-engine Cessna 206 amphibious float plane have yet to be released.

Latti said the accident happened when Solari, 69, was attempting to land in a narrow section of Kezar Lake just north of Middle Bay about 300 yards from the western shore in the 2,500-acre lake.

“The plane had retractable landing gear – wheels – in its pontoons. When he was landing on the lake, his landing gear was still down, and when he landed, the wheels caught the water and the plane somersaulted and flipped upside-down,” Latti said.

People out in boats on the lake witnessed the accident and converged on the stricken plane to help.

Latti said it is yet to be known if Solari died from injuries sustained in the crash, or from drowning.

Of the passengers, the husband, his wife and their son unstrapped themselves from their seats while upside down underwater and swam to the surface fairly quickly.

“But the couple’s 4-year-old daughter was still strapped in her seat, and the fuselage was totally underwater. Her mother dove back under and unstrapped her and brought her to the surface,” Latti said.

The little girl was airlifted to the Portland hospital with another family member, Latti said.

By 5 p.m. Saturday, the plane, which was towed to shore, was still resting upside-down between a float and a dock at a private camp across from Severance Lodge.

A salvage crew was trying to figure out how to right the plane and get it out of the water, while authorities with the Federal Aviation Administration, Oxford County Sheriff’s Office and warden service continued to investigate the accident, Latti said. Maine State Police troopers also assisted.

Maine Department of Environmental Protection officials also responded, placing a boom around the plane due to a little bit of fuel leakage.

Fryeburg Selectman Clifford Hall said Solari served as the town’s Airport Authority chairman and was a former selectman. Solari was also the longtime manager of Eastern Slopes Regional Airport in Fryeburg.

“Everyone knew Joe Solari. He was a fine man, a very well-respected man and a pillar of the community,” Hall said by phone from his Fryeburg home early Saturday evening. “On behalf of the town, we offer our sympathies to his families. This is going to be sad news for everyone in town.”