Witness Said Landing Initially Looked "Normal"

A Piper PA28 Cherokee went down in a swamp area during a landing attempt near the Gardiner Municipal Airport in Massachusetts Saturday seriously injuring the pilot and two passengers.

"I was just looking up, and I saw the wing being torn off the side of the airplane," said witness Alicia D. Raulston. "We were here having a family day when this happened. I just looked up and saw it. It came straight down toward the ground. Then a crash -- like an explosion. I ran down the street and saw the plane, nose-first into the swamp."

The airplane (type shown below) came to rest on its left side, nose-first in the mud, according to the Worcester Telegram.

Lt. Richard Ares of the Gardner Fire Department said it was a difficult extrication process.

"It wasn't that far off the road, but the mud was a foot and a half deep, and we were cutting through a lot of heavy brush, such as mountain laurel," he said. "It was slow-going."

Two women and a man were airlifted to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, according to the Boston Globe.

Nearby resident Dorothy Leger-Lore told reporters that a young woman, 19, and her brother, 16 were among the crowd at the crash scene.

 "They told me their mother was in the crash. They just needed a place to be while the rescue was going on, so I let them stay here on my front lawn. I let them use my telephone, gave them water, let them have whatever they needed."

The teens said told her their family was from Egypt visiting friends in Westminster.

"They saw the airplane, and said it went over the runway and crashed," Leger-Lore said.

Alan McAlister was at the airport at the time of the crash with his sons.

"We had a trail bike, we were using the trails. We heard the airplane making a landing, so we stopped what we were doing and then saw it land. I don't think there was anything unusual about the landing," Mr. McAlister said. "Everything seemed normal."

Then they heard an explosion.

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 4337P        Make/Model: PA28      Description: PA-28 CHEROKEE, ARROW, WARRIOR, ACHER, D
  Date: 07/14/2007     Time: 1950

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: Serious     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
  City: GARDNER   State: MA   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT STRUCK TREES AND CRASHED INTO A SWAMPY AREA, 8 MILES FROM GARDNER,
  MA

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   1     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   2     Fat:   0     Ser:   2     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: KFIT 141952Z AUTO 23003KT 10SM FEW090 27/12 A2990

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Pleasure      Phase: Unknown      Operation: OTHER

  FAA FSDO: WINDSOR LOCKS, CT  (EA63)             Entry date: 07/16/2007

FMI: www.faa.gov