Sunday, August 07, 2011

Lake Tomahawk, Oneida County; near Dolhun Field Airport (WI36)



TOWN OF WOODRUFF - A man walks away after a plane crashes into a Northwoods Lake.

Police say the crash happened just before 3 this afternoon on Tomahawk Lake.

residents on the south side of Tomahawk Lake said they were enjoying the weather when something caught their eye.

"I was out in the rowboat with my kids," witness Al Ward said.

"We were facing right at it. We saw the plane come in low, it hit the water and flipped over."

Witnesses say the pilot of the single engine plane was able to get out almost immediately.

Woodruff Police Detective Clayton Kreitlow believes the pilot was attempting to land at nearby Dolhun Field.

"It looks like he may have been coming in a little low," Kreitlow said.

"I've been told it's tricky entering this private airfield and he might have just misjudged where he was at and touched the water and the plane flipped over.

The pilot was the only person on-board the plane.

Police say he was taken to Howard Young Medical Center with minor injuries.

Police contacted the FAA and it is investigating the crash.

A pilot escaped serious injuries after his single engine aircraft crashed into Lake Tomahawk in Oneida County Friday afternoon. There were “complications” with the aircraft just before the crash, said authorities without elaborating.

The plane flipped over on its top as the pilot came in low and contacted the lake about 40 feet from shore, according to reports. The pilot got out and to shore without assistance. No one else was in the plane. The water is about four to five feet deep at the crash site.

The pilot was transported to Howard Young Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries and later released, said a dispatcher at the Minocqua Police Department, quoting a press release. Authorities did not release the man’s name nor give out any other details pending an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The accident occurred near Dolhun Field Airport, a private field with one asphalt runway, 1.5 miles northwest of Lake Tomahawk along State Highway 47 in the town of Woodruff.