Dozens of reports of a plane crash in Charleston turned out to be much ado about nothing, according to the pilot who flew a single-engine Cessna on Sunday.

“I got stuck in the raspberry bushes and my brother helped me out, and that’s the story,” said Jim Crane of Exeter. “To me, it’s not a crash. Nothing happened to the plane or me.”

For several dozen people, however, seeing the plane among the bushes at the edge of a field on the Main Road caused a flood of cell phone calls to Maine State Police barracks in Orono and the Penobscot Regional Communications Center in Bangor. Some callers reported that a plane was caught in trees, while others reported that people were injured and that a rescue team of snowmobilers was already on the way to the “crash site.”

In truth, Crane had landed his plane on his field using the Cessna’s skis in order to visit his brother, Michael Crane, who lives in the house beside the field, Crane said. Michael Crane and several of his friends had been getting ready to leave on a snowmobile trip.

Members of the group delayed the trip as they waited to watch Crane take off, Michael Crane said. When wind caught the plane as Jim Crane was preparing to take off, the pilot shut off the engine, and the crosswinds pushed him into raspberry bushes. The snowmobilers helped push the plane out, then watched it take off as Corinth ambulance and fire crews began to arrive, Michael Crane said. The plane was on the ground for about 10 minutes. “The story here should be that people with cell phones shouldn’t call unnecessarily and report unimportant events to the fire department,” Jim Crane said.

The event had Corinth emergency crews a bit nervous as they expected the worst.

“We kind of got a little excited and thought it might be something serious, but it was one person in a plane behind Mike Crane’s potato fields,” Corinth fire Capt. Jeff Bragdon said. “Before we were halfway across the field, he had the plane fired up and was leaving.”

None of the people who called in the plane crash stopped to see whether help was actually needed.

A Brewer man remained in Penobscot County Jail on Sunday night after allegedly having threatened a Bangor man and refusing to leave the man’s Fern Street home.

William Jennison was jailed on $440 cash bail after he entered a former friend’s home and allegedly began talking about people who had been killed earlier in the night and insinuating that the 39-year-old Bangor man also would die.

The Bangor man’s 35-year-old wife told police that Jennison was not wanted in the home, was refusing to leave and was armed, Bangor police Officer Wade Betters said. Police surrounded the home as the couple and their 10-year-old and 3-year-old sons sneaked out.

Jennison left the home at gunpoint with his hands at his sides and with no gun in sight, but refused orders to lie on the ground, Betters said. When asked to describe the weapon, the couple told police they had never actually seen a weapon.

The husband told police that Jennison told him that “I got one for you and I plan to give it to you,” as he reached into his jacket as if he were reaching for a gun, Betters said.

Jennison claimed that the death he was referring to occurred years ago and that he had threatened the husband because of something that had happened years ago

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Derek Breton

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Jennison was charged with criminal trespass and criminal threatening.

A joint effort between the Hampden and Boston police departments and Greyhound Lines Inc. was expected to result in the reunion of a Hampden family with their 14-year-old son late Sunday.

The teen had run away Sunday morning, allegedly because he didn’t like being in Maine. He bought a Greyhound bus ticket, bound for Virginia, where his family once lived, Hampden police Sgt. Scott Webber said.

Police obtained an itinerary from the bus line and found the bus route the teen had taken. Employees with Greyhound confirmed that the teen had gotten on to the bus, but the itinerary showed he had used a friend’s name.

Boston police picked up the youth as his bus arrived for a layover. The teen has not been charged with any crimes, Webber said. The parents were en route to Boston Sunday evening to be reunited with their son.

A Hampden man was charged with drunken driving Friday night after he abandoned his car when it skidded off the road, Hampden police said.

Alan Winch, 35, had been driving his 1994 Pontiac sedan on Exit 44 of I-95 when, he claimed, a car abruptly stopped in front of him, forcing him to drive off the side of the road, Hampden police Sgt. Scott Webber said.

Winch locked himself out of his vehicle when he got out to survey the damage and proceeded to walk home. A passer-by soon reported the abandoned vehicle.

Police found Winch at his home a short time later, where he failed sobriety tests, Webber said.

Winch was issued a summons for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and is scheduled to appear in 3rd District Court in Bangor on Feb. 21. There was no damage to Winch’s car.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Derek Breton