Click here for updates on this story
Massachusetts (WBZ) — A small plane crashed into a pond in Plymouth, Massachusetts Thursday morning, leaving the pilot critically hurt.
It happened just after 7:30 a.m. in Curlew Pond, which is off Curlew Pond Road in Myles Standish State Park.
“We heard the plane stall. We thought we’d hear the engine re-start, but we didn’t. That’s when we knew that somebody was in trouble,” said John McCarthy, who owns a campground nearby. He didn’t know where the plane was going to end up.
“We expected to see it in the trees over there. I’m thinking he must have put down to try to at least keep it in the pond as having his best chance of coming out of it,” he told WBZ-TV.
The fixed-wing, two-seat plane ended up upside down at the edge of the shore after the crash. Massachusetts State Police said the pilot was trapped inside.
McCarthy and his neighbors jumped in their cars and boats when they saw the plane sinking in the water.
“When I came down here it was nose down, tail up,” he told WBZ. “A bunch of us worked together to try to move, flip, turn the plane to get the pilot out. It’s a very bad situation to try to handle that.”
McCarthy said the pilot was unconscious and estimates he was submerged for about 20 minutes.
The pilot, who has not been identified, was pulled out by the Plymouth County Dive Team and rushed to a hospital with what State Police said were “life-threatening” injuries.
“They came as quick as they could, it’s a hard place to find out here,” McCarthy said.
There’s no word yet on what caused the crash. The Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office is leading the investigation.
An oil spill prevention and response team was called in because some fuel from the plane was leaking into the pond.
Curlew Pond is a 46-acre pond in the northwest corner of Myles Standish State Park, according to the Department of Conservation and Recreation. The pond has as an average depth of 13 feet and a maximum depth of 33 feet. It’s a few miles from Plymouth Municipal Airport.
Plymouth, Massachusetts is about 40 miles south of Boston.
Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.