• Small plane lands at Quabbin Reservoir; pilot not injured

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A photo provided by Massachusetts State Police shows the 2015 fixed-wing Seawind plane that landed Tuesday on a sandbar in the Quabbin Reservoir.
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• By Kim Ring
  Telegram & Gazette Staff

  
  Posted Aug. 23, 2016 at 3:59 PM
  Updated at 11:03 PM
  
  

  NEW SALEM - A Rhode Island financial analyst and philanthropist escaped injury Tuesday when his single-engine plane became mired on a sandbar in the Quabbin Reservoir after what he told police was an emergency landing.

  Guillaume de Ramel, 41, of Newport landed the plane on the sandbar at 2:52 p.m. State police said he contacted them and said he had landed the plane after experiencing mechanical problems with the 2015 fixed-wing Seawind plane.

  William Pula from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation said the plane was intact and a protective boom was set up around the landing site, though there was no evidence of a spill. Water in the area was being tested, but officials said there was no evidence of problems.

  The reservoir provides drinking water to Boston and other communities.

  
  

  The landing surprised Kim and John Kenney of West Brookfield, who were out enjoying the water on a boat rented from boat launch area 2.

  “We heard the plane and there was no sound of a crash,” Ms. Kenney said. “Then a fisherman came around the corner and yelled, ‘Call 911.’ ”

  Police helicopters soon hovered overhead, one landing nearby to check on the pilot. State police boats made their way to the downed plane.

  Mr. Kenney said the plane appeared to be bogged down in the soft sand where it landed north of Mount Russ and Mount L, and he could hear the pilot revving the engine .

  According to the former Providence Phoenix, Mr. de Ramel started Air Newport LLC. He has twice run for Rhode Island secretary of state, losing the Democratic nomination both times.

  His wife, Molly de Ramel, a former Fox News business reporter, said her husband was not injured. She drove from their Vermont vacation home to pick him up at the state police barracks in Belchertown, where he was taken about five hours after the landing.

  Mr. de Ramel declined to speak with reporters, saying he was thirsty and tired.

  The Federal Aviation Administration, state police and DCR staff are investigating. No charges had been filed Tuesday night.

  
  

  State police were expected to be on the water through the night guarding the plane. Plans to remove the aircraft will be made once investigators finish their work at the site. That could be as soon as Wednesday, police said.

  
  

  State watershed regulations prohibit the landing of any aircraft on the reservoir, watershed property and lands managed by DCR, an official from the agency said.