Home-built plane crashes into Ossipee Lake

By Dena Libner

A home-built airplane flipped and capsized into Ossipee Lake Tuesday evening after the machine's wing clipped the water's surface, just after take-off.The only passenger of the airplane, pilot Chip Johnson of Ossipee, was uninjured. He escaped from the overturned plane and was pulled from the lake by a boater.The airplane, a Kit Fox, is a "home-built" type of craft, according to a Federal Aviation Administration official. They can be assembled from an individual's home and are very popular.The Kit Fox flown by Johnson was a 90-horsepower, single-engine airplane on floats, according to West Ossipee Fire Chief Brad Eldridge. He said that the airplane, which was only about 6 feet above the lake's surface when its wing hit the water, was not badly damaged, just a little banged up.The Bureau of Marine Patrol and Ossipee Fire Department towed the plane as close to shore as possible, grounding it on the floor of the lake and marking it with lights. Wednesday morning, officials removed the airplane's floats and flipped the boat right side up. Although booms were put in place to contain any pollutants that might leak from the plane's engine, there was little, if any, fuel spillage in the water, according to officials. Eldridge said there was no oily sheen on the lake's surface.A Federal Aviation Administration official in Portland, Maine said the administration is in the process of investigating the accident. The experimental airplane is currently on shore, at the home of owner Barry Huston.