DANBURY – A single-engine 1984 Beechcraft Bonanza airplane crashed near Danbury Municipal Airport on the evening of Thursday, July 24.

The airplane was approaching Runway 35 from the south for a landing, when for some unknown reason, it failed to reach the runway and crash-landed in a pond within a swamp off Miry Brook Road, about one-quarter mile south of the airport, officials said.

 Steven Rogers, spokesman for the Danbury Fire Department, declined to identify the pilot who was alone in the airplane when the crash occurred.

The identification number posted on the airplane’s fuselage indicates that it is owned by Lionel G. Brown of Newtown, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

Mr Brown, 72, is a retired medical doctor with a specialty in hand/wrist surgery. Attempts to reach Dr Brown for comment were unsuccessful.

Mr Rogers said that at about 6:50 pm, the city’s 911 emergency call center received a report that an airplane had crashed just south of the airport.

The Danbury Fire Department and Danbury ambulance crews responded to the scene.

Also, a Ridgefield Fire Department ambulance crew was near the airport when the accident occurred and was thus mobilized.

The aircraft had crashed into a large swamp near 30 Miry Brook Road, in the vicinity of Old Sugar Hollow Road.

Ridgefield firefighters were the first people to find the aircraft, which was not visible from the road, Mr Rogers said.

The pilot was found standing on top of the airplane, which was in water about eight feet deep, Mr Rogers said.

Danbury firefighters used a boat to reach the airplane and then rescue the pilot, he said.

“The pilot was brought to shore and checked by Danbury paramedics. The pilot was uninjured and was released by (the paramedics),” Mr Rogers said.

Firefighters placed absorbent booms around the airplane to isolate any possible fuel leakage, he said.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) sent staff to the scene to investigate.

The cause of the airplane crash is under investigation by Danbury police, state police, Danbury Airport officials, and the National Transportation Safety Board, Mr Rogers said.