The 2-seater 1946 Ercoupe single-engine prop plane landed upside down on Howard Kilmer's farmland in Clermont, Columbia County.
Kilmer said, "I heard this noise and it sounded like a wise kid with no pipes and no mufflers on a motorcycle taking off."
But Kilmer soon realized, it was no motorcycle.
The pilot, 50-year-old Jay Dean Morrisett of Virginia reported that the plane lost power around three o'clock Wednesday. He narrowly missed the buildings.
"He was heading for the buildings he said and he said I better get away from them so he headed across, hit the bank and flipped right over side," Kilmer said.
Amazingly, Morrisett walked away with just a cut on his hand.
Kilmer talked with the pilot moments after the crash.
Kilmer said, "He seemed pretty calm, he was pretty good."
The ironic part of this whole thing, Morrisett had just purchased the plane the same day in New Hampshire and was flying it back home to Virginia.
Chuck Webber, a local pilot, flew over the site moments after the crash.
"I could tell he made an emergency landing in a wide open field and it looked like he hit a little bit hard or too fast and the nose wheel collapsed and it tipped over on its back," said Webber.
Webber, who's been flying his whole life, has had to make similar landings. He says they can be tense.
"It's very risky. But it looks like he did the right thing though," said Webber.
Morrisett was a quick thinking pilot who not only avoided hitting anything on the ground but saved his own life.
Kilmer said, "Oh god, he was a lucky man, yeah."
The FAA is investigating the crash.
