Ultralight crashes into river; two aboard unhurt

Former Navy pilot Keene Little appeared cool as a cucumber Tuesday night after taking a nosedive into the St. Lawrence River at Kring Point with his 650-pound Challenger ultralight aircraft.

"I have been in a lot worse situations than this," he said, standing on the river's shore while his $30,000 craft rested submerged near a dock off Kring Point Road.

Mr. Little, Seattle, Wash., and passenger, his brother-in-law Richard Starr, Cornwall-on-Hudson, were not injured. They were prepared for an accident, wearing harnesses, helmets and flotation devices.

Shortly after 6 p.m., while they were flying at about 55 mph, "the engine never even sputtered, it just quit," Mr. Little said. At the time, he was flying at about 100 feet.

His first thoughts were not of personal injury, but of saving the craft, he said.

"I lowered the nose to hold our air speed," Mr. Little said. "We went down and hit the water hard, then it flipped upside down."

They had just passed over and waved to people on a pontoon boat, who were immediately on the rescue, taking the two men aboard off Indian Point, about a quarter mile from shore.

"I wish I knew who they were," Mr. Little said. "I'd buy them each a bottle of whiskey."

Another boat arrived and towed the ultralight to a dock, where it sank.

Mr. Little said he had had no engine problems up until that minute, and was operating on a nearly full tank of gas.

He and his father, Hillis Little, Ramsey, N.J., built the craft late last summer, and had been flying it all this summer while spending the season on Grenadier Island.

Mr. Little said he flew seven years in the Navy, serving on aircraft carriers. He was never in combat situations, he said.