LIVERMORE FALLS — A local man and a boy escaped injury Saturday morning when the plane they were flying in crashed shortly after takeoff at Bowman Airfield in Livermore Falls, police said.
Pilot Mark Smith, 54, and his 12-year-old relative were able to walk away from the crash and meet police after a neighbor witnessed the plane go down and called 911 at 8:15 a.m. Police declined to name the boy.
Smith was flying the 1942 PT-17 Stearman World War II-era training plane he kept at the private airfield, police officer Stephen Wilkinson said. The plane, valued at roughly $100,000, was destroyed, Wilkinson said.
The single-prop plane started down the runway, then Smith encountered mechanical problems, Wilkinson said. The plane went down in trees, just missing nearby power lines.
The Federal Aviation Administration was notified, along with the National Transportation Safety Board, Wilkinson said. The FAA sent an inspector to the crash sit.
cwilliams@sunjournal.com
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