A 51-year-old Dixfield man was airlifted and hospitalized Sunday after arching a powerful snowmobile onto his chest shortly before noon at Lock Pond in Chesterville.

James Holman was flown by LifeFlight of Maine to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston following the accident.

“We didn’t know if it was going to be a fatal,” said Game Warden Terry Hughes on Sunday evening. Hughes investigated the crash with Game Warden Kevin Anderson.

Hughes said he learned later Sunday that Holman’s injuries turned out to be “very minor.” He said the Dixfield man was being kept at the hospital overnight for observation, but was expected to be discharged today.

“You just don’t know when there are chest injuries involved,” Hughes said. “He was very fortunate.”

Hughes said Holman was riding with other sledders on the off-the-beaten-path pond when he tried his son’s Polaris XL-800.

“They were out there racing around, seeing how fast they could get going,” he said.

“It was all fitted out with gadgets and studs,” Hughes said. “It’s a fast machine, they souped it all up.”

He said Holman was attempted to “pop a wheelie; he wanted to get the skis off the ice” when the studs on the track apparently grabbed and flipped the machine backward and onto Holman.

Rescuers from Chesterville and Farmington helped stabilize Holman at the pond before he was flown to the Lewiston hospital.