Marshfield firefighters confer next to a single-engine plane that crashed and burned at Marshfield Airport yesterday. The pilot, Daniel Lyons of Cazenovia, N.Y., escaped from the plane with only a cut finger. (GREG DERR/The Patriot Ledger)

By SYDNEY SCHWARTZ
The Patriot Ledger

MARSHFIELD - Patrolman Paul McCarthy arrived at Marshfield airport Friday to find a single-engine plane engulfed in flames.

The 43-year-old pilot from upstate New York stood nearby, staring at the wreckage in the field off Woodbine Road.

‘‘I thought he was a witness,’’ McCarthy said later that afternoon. ‘‘I said to somebody, ‘Where’s the pilot?’ He said, ‘I’m right here.’’’

Police said they expected at least one fatality in the crash. But the pilot, the sole occupant of the plane, walked away with only a small cut on a finger.

‘‘He was just kind of stunned. I couldn’t believe that he was standing up,’’ McCarthy said. ‘‘You look at him, you look at the plane again, you look back at him, you say, ‘ ... This was one lucky guy.’’’

Daniel Lyons of Cazenovia, N.Y., near Syracuse, N.Y., was landing at Marshfield’s Harlow Field when he crashed just after 10 a.m. Friday, police said.

As he landed, Lyons’ plane’s left tire blew out and the plane ran through a metal fence, said Richard Bunker, the state’s aeronautic commissioner.

Marshfield Fire Chief Kevin Robinson said striking the fence caused a fuel leak, which ignited when the wing hit a rock.

Marshfield Police Sgt. Chris Jones, who led the police investigation, said Lyons noticed he was having a problem when he touched down on the runway.

He tried to speed up and take off again, but the plane continued to skid. The left wheel left skid marks on the runway.

‘‘His hands were shaking. He looked like he had seen a ghost,’’ Jones said. ‘‘He walked away with a cut on his finger. Couldn’t have asked for more than that.’’

The plane, a 2004 Mooney Ovation, was registered to Willowbank Co., Lyon’s real estate leasing, management and construction company.

After the crash, Marshfield paramedics evaluated Lyons. He declined to be taken to a hospital, Robinson said.

Lyons was interviewed by Marshfield police and representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission before leaving the airport Friday afternoon.

Jones said the pilot was familiar with Marshfield airport. He was coming to visit a friend or relative on the South Shore.

The crash came as the Marshfield Airport Commission is working to expand the runway to make takeoffs and landings safer.

An improvement plan calls for widening the 75-foot runway by about 25 feet and lengthening it up to 331 feet.

Chairman James Ziegenmeyer said such an expansion could have made a difference for Lyons.

‘‘He would’ve had an additional 300 feet to stop,’’ Ziegenmeyer said. ‘‘Those rocks wouldn’t be there if we had that 300 feet.’’

In October 2000, a Maine man crashed his single-engine Cessna plane in the same spot while making an emergency landing at Marshfield Airport. The plane came down about 100 feet short of the runway.

That crash was the first at the airport since 1995, when the wing of a plane struck a tree during a landing. That pilot, Kevin Donoghue, 55, of 31 Brackett St., Milton, also walked away with just scratches on his hand and elbow.

On Friday, residents crowded around the crash site to see the plane’s wreckage.

The left wing lay on the marshy field a few feet away from the cockpit, near several boulders. All that was left of the plane was its burnt-out frame, its bent propeller and its blue-and-white tail.

Neighbors said they saw smoke from their windows and backyards, but did not hear a crash.

‘‘All I saw was the black smoke, I thought there was a fire in the woods, till I went down there after they had the fire out,’’ said Thomas Martin of 25 Woodbine St.

‘‘The plane was, I could see, was broken to pieces,’’ said Mary Volonino of 5 Woodbine Road. ‘‘It did go up in flames. It was on fire and miraculously the pilot was not hurt.’’

A police detail officer remained with the plane overnight. Airport officials had the fence repaired Friday afternoon and expected to move the wreckage Saturday.

Karen Goulart contributed to this report.

Sydney Schwartz may be reached at sschwartz@ledger.com .

Copyright 2007 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Saturday, March 10, 2007