No fatalities in Gilford airplane crash

GILFORD — A male pilot was transported to Concord Hospital—Concord with head trauma and facial injuries after crashing a single-engine aircraft in the parking lot near Patrick's Pub & Eatery on Thursday afternoon.

The single-engine Cessna appeared to have skimmed the roof of the building containing the Gateway Spa, the Wine'ing Butcher and H Salon before landing upside down.

Gilford firefighters were making temporary repairs to the roof of the retail building on the scene.

“I had just finished with a client,” said Heather Brownell, owner of the H Salon. “It felt like an earthquake. I had thought someone had hit a telephone pole out here, and so when I looked everybody was just rushing. Then as I started to go to the door, the massage therapist next door came out and said a plane just hit the building.”

Brownell and the client went to the therapist's side of the building and spotted the inverted plane and its parts scattered across the parking lot.

An employee of the NH Liquor & Wine Outlet said they felt shaking and banging sounds, and saw people running to help immediately before law enforcement came to take over.

"When we got here we were directed to the back side of the building and there was a seaplane on its roof,” said Gilford Fire and Rescue Chief Steve Carrier. “It had struck the building on its way down and the roof is compromised where it was struck. The occupant was still in the plane strapped into his seatbelt. He had some injuries that don't appear to be life-threatening at this time.”

Rescue teams managed to get the victim out and into a Gilford ambulance.

“We got dispatched and responded with an engine and an ambulance to the incident. Once Gilford got on scene we evaluated what they were dealing with, [and] we canceled the engine and ambulance,” said Laconia Fire Chief Tim Joubert.

A single employee present at the Laconia Airport said he knew nothing about a crash, but had heard some rumors.

Low aircraft over the parking lot is a daily occurrence due to the airport's returning flight path.

It's not entirely clear yet if the plane was attempting to land at the airport, but multiple planes could be seen making their landing approaches directly over the wreckage.

“It's a running joke in here because while I'm blowdrying a client, I usually have the chair facing the window and you always see planes coming in and it really looks like they're gonna hit the building and I joke and say, 'Hopefully the wind doesn't blow the wrong way,'” Brownell said.