ARUNDEL – A flight instructor and a student pilot walked away with minor injuries Friday night after their single engine Cessna aircraft crashed into the woods off Proctor Road.

Richard Whicker, a flight instructor from North Berwick and student pilot William Hart of Lyman were apparently relatively unscathed, authorities said, even though the plane itself was a twisted wreck.

Whicker and Hart walked to an ambulance and were taken to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford, where they were being checked Friday night.

“How they survived I don’t know,” said Biddeford Fire Department Deputy Chief Justin Cooper, who said the aircraft crashed through multiple trees, the tail end was snapped off and the wings were bent. There was a fuel leak off the left wing that firefighters were able to mitigate, he said.

The aircraft had taken off from Biddeford Municipal Airport but turned around in an attempt to reach the airport after experiencing engine trouble, said York County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. David Chauvette. He said Whicker took control of the airplane from the student pilot and affected what he described to authorities as a “controlled crash,” which meant the pilot had no choice but to land the aircraft.

The Federal Aviation Administration was notified and was expected to be on the scene today. The National Aviation Safety Board was also apprised of the situation, Chauvette said. The crash site was to be secured overnight and taken to a hangar at Biddeford Municipal Airport.

Raymond Lariviere said he was cooking supper on the grill at about 6:15 p.m. when he heard an airplane – not unusual because Biddeford Municipal Airport isn’t far away. But something didn’t sound right, he said.

“The engine started spitting and sputtering,” said Lariviere. “I turned around and watched it dive into the tree line. I was dumbfounded.”

Lariviere, who said he’s familiar with the wooded, swampy terrain from hunting, called 911 – and as it turned out the flight instructor already had – and made his way 400 yards into the woods where he found the two men standing by the wrecked airplane.

“They were lucky,” he said. “They walked out on their own.”

Arundel, Biddeford and Kennebunk fire departments responded, along with the York County Sheriff’s Office.

Cooper said the response was a good example of the unifed command system and that the departments worked seamlessly together.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, Ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.