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Pilot: ‘I hit the ground hard and bounced’

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CARRABASSETT VALLEY – The pilot of a single engine plane who walked away without injury from a crash landing at Sugarloaf Regional Airport Saturday evening said he’s not sure what went wrong.

At 7:45 p.m. Holland Filgo, 82, of Boston, Mass. and Carrabassett Valley, was flying alone and on an approach from the north and seemed to land normally but “hit very hard and had a real quick stop,” said Police Chief Scott Nichols of the Carrabassett Valley Department. “The front landing gear got crushed and the prop was ground into the tarmac.”

Filgo, an experienced pilot, has routinely flown for many years from Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass., to Sugarloaf, primarily to ski. Saturday was clear and winds mostly calm when the crash occurred at dusk.

“I’m not quite sure what happened. I don’t know if I was higher than I expected or was coming in too fast,” Filgo said. “I hit the ground hard and bounced. The nose wheel collapsed. It was a total surprise.”

The single engine Piper PA 28 is an older model but has been kept in excellent condition, Filgo said. An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board was up on Sunday to inspect the plane and talk with Filgo about what happened. Today, the pilot is on the phone with the insurance company hoping his plane can be repaired.

And, thinking about how lucky he is to walk away from the crash without so much as a bruise.

“It happened so fast I didn’t have time to think about it, but I keep replaying it in my mind now,” Filgo said.


The single engine plane piloted by Holland Filgo of Boston and Carrabassett Valley, crashed on landing at Sugarloaf Regional Airport Saturday evening. Filgo, who was flying alone, was not injured. Photo courtesy of CVPD.

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1 Comment

  1. Gee Do you think at 7:45 pm with no lights on the runway, that he made a good decision to land?

    Calling it “dusk” is a little bit of a stretch since sunset was listed as 6:37 pm for that day.

    Aren’t there rules about landing in the dark with no runway lights

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