Kayakers help rescue Frederick pilot from Anne Arundel County creek after plane crash
Dec. 27—A father and son in a kayak were among those who helped rescue a 71-year-old Frederick pilot from a creek in Anne Arundel County on Monday morning after the small plane he was flying crashed shortly after takeoff.
The pair jumped into action when they saw the plane veer into Beards Creek, a short distance from Lee Airport in Edgewater, said Lt. Jenny Macalliar, a spokeswoman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.
Steve Couchman, the pilot, was taken by ambulance to Anne Arundel Medical Center with injuries not considered life-threatening, Macalliar said.
He was the only person in the plane he was flying, a single-engine Piper Cherokee, according to a news release on Monday from the Maryland State Police Annapolis barrack.
Maryland State Police from the Annapolis and Glen Burnie barracks were dispatched to Beards Creek shortly before 10:30 a.m. to respond to reports of a plane crash, according to the news release.
Preliminary reports indicate that moments after Couchman took off from Lee Airport, the engine of his plane began sputtering, according to the news release. Soon after, witnesses told state police, the plane crashed into Beards Creek.
Couchman climbed out of the plane and stood on the wing while it sank, according to the news release. The father and son who responded to the crash paddled to the pilot and had him grab onto their kayak to stay afloat, Macalliar said.
They weren't able to pull Couchman onto their kayak, she said.
Moments later, two officers from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police arrived at the creek. One officer navigated to Couchman on his patrol boat and pulled him aboard, DNR spokeswoman Lauren Moses wrote in an email.
The officer then took Couchman to the Annapolis Landing Marina, where he boarded an ambulance and was sent to the medical center.
The kayakers weren't injured during the rescue operation, according to the state police news release.
Maryland State Police are heading the investigation.
Officers from the Anne Arundel County Police Department also assisted in the rescue, said Lt. AJ Gardiner, a spokesman for the police department.
This isn't the first time a plane has crashed after taking off from Lee Airport, Gardiner said.
He's been with the department for 28 years, and estimates that he has responded to seven or eight crashes from the airport.
Gardiner recalled another crash in Beards Creek that was fatal.
A man died in 1998, according to The Baltimore Sun, when his experimental two-seater plane plummeted into the waterway while attempting to land at Lee.
Follow Angela Roberts on Twitter: @24_angier
