Pilot Swam To Safety After Sussex Plane Crash

ANDOVER, NJ — The pilot of Monday's plane crash freed himself and swam to a rescue rowboat in the lake, the Andover Township Police Department said.

The plane went down several minutes after taking off at Aeroflex Airport, witnesses told police. The plane appeared to have engine troubles before banking hard to the left and crashing into the lake where it sank.

Officers used a rowboat to rescue the pilot from the lake, who had freed himself from the plane and begun swimming to safety. The pilot was conscious and complaining of severe back and neck pain, police said. He was flown to Morristown Medical Center.

The pilot, a 49-year-old man, was alone at the time of the crash, Larry Hajna, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman, told NJ.com. No one else was in the lake, but a witness on shore called 911.

Investigators will retrieve the plane from the lake on Tuesday, police said. The exact cause of the crash was not yet known, but is under investigation by the FAA.

Image: a stock photo of a plane, not the plane in the crash, via Shutterstock