BROOKS – The pilot of an ultralight aircraft escaped serious injuries after a crash Sunday evening.

A witness said Reggie Tyler, believed to be about 70 years old and a longtime resident of Brooks, took off from nearby Brooks Park at about 6:20 p.m. and may have clipped some trees near Marsh Stream.

The aircraft landed in the stream, making a loud enough “pop” sound that was heard by residents who lived in the village area.

Tyler was taken by ambulance to Waldo County General Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition at 8:30 p.m.

Ed Cross, who was near the park when Tyler took off, said he saw the aircraft’s wings tip back and forth before it apparently struck a clump of trees.

Jeff Archer, the town’s assistant fire chief, said resident Al Libby was on the scene shortly after the crash, and he swam out to assist Tyler. Tyler was out of the aircraft, but hanging onto it in the shallow stream, Archer said.

“He was conscious and talking to us. We loaded him into a canoe and brought him to shore,” he said.

Tyler was joking with emergency responders as they loaded him onto the ambulance, a woman at the scene said.

Some of those who gathered at the scene on the riverbank, just west of the cluster of businesses on Route 7, said Tyler built the aircraft himself over the course of about 15 years.

“He worked very hard on it,” Archer said.

Tyler had been flying it for about three years, a woman at the scene said.

Cross said Tyler had kept the aircraft at Knox County Regional Airport in Owls Head for most of the summer, but had recently brought it back to Brooks.

A state trooper and Waldo County Sheriff’s deputy responded to the crash, along with the fire department and Brooks Ambulance Service.