By JEREMY SCHIFFRES
City Editor
jschiffres@freemanonline.com

KERHONKSON, N.Y. — A 50-year-old New Paltz man suffered only minor injuries when the experimental single-engine plane he was flying struck a tree and crashed about 5:40 p.m. Thursday in this town of Rochester hamlet, according to state police.

Mark Thomas already was out of the plane when emergency responders arrived at the scene and was conscious and alert, said Senior Investigator Stan O’Dell.

Thomas, the plane’s pilot and sole occupant, was taken by ambulance to St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie with non-life-threatening injuries, O’Dell said.

O’Dell said the plane took off from a small airport in Plattekill and was flying at a low altitude over Old Queens Highway near U.S. Route 209 in Kerhonkson when it struck the tree and crashed in a field. O’Dell estimated the fall was less than 50 feet.

The aircraft was resting on its nose when emergency responders arrived, according to a police press release.

O’Dell did not know where the aircraft, which he described as a two-seat biplane, was headed when the accident occurred.

He said the cause of the accident is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

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