ADDISON COUNTY — Vermont State Police on Saturday afternoon prepared for a possible crash landing of an airplane at the air strip at Basin Harbor in Ferrisburgh.
At approximately 1:15 p.m. on Sept. 27 officials at the Burlington Airport control tower notified the troopers in New Haven that a 1958 Piper Tri-Pacer fixed wing propeller plane was headed to Basin Harbor and in trouble. When police got to Ferrisburgh they found the plane had made an emergency landing in a field near the Basin Harbor Airport. Pilot Roger Teese, 73, of Charlotte and his wife, who was a passenger, were not injured in the field landing.
Teese told police he had fueled his plane at the Middlebury State Airport and was en route to Basin Harbor when air began rushing into the cockpit of the plane; the fabric roof over top of the windshield had become unsecured and was torn from its mounting. Teese told police that this damage caused the plane to “porpoise” and to limit his control of the aircraft. Although he intended to land at the Basin Harbor Airport he was unable to do so and safely landed the plane in a nearby field.
Other than the torn roof fabric, the Piper aircraft did not appear to be damaged, police reported.
State police got help on the scene from the Vergennes Fire Department, Vergennes Area Rescue Squad, the Addison County Sheriff’s Department and Vergennes police.
This incident remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Vermont State Police at 802-388-4919, submit an anonymous tip online at vsp.vermont.gov/tipsubmit  or by texting “CRIMES” (274637) with keyword: VTIPS.
In other incidents reported in the past week, troopers:
•  On Sept. 24 at around 3:20 p.m. responded to an accident involving a school bus in Bristol. Police report that Bristol resident Rachel C. Ashline, 55, attempted to back the bus she was driving into a driveway along Burpee Road to turn around. The bus hit a pickup truck driven by Julianna Doherty, 39, of Monkton, who was driving north on the road, causing “severe contact damage” to that vehicle. The bus sustained minor damage. Neither driver nor the 15 Bristol Elementary School students on board sustained any injuries.
•  On Sept. 24 responded to vandalism and thefts from cars parked at two trailheads in the Green Mountain National Forest. Between 1:15 and 4:15 p.m. that day two vehicles parked at the Robert Frost Trail in Ripton, belonging to North Ferrisburgh and Middlebury residents, respectively, were broken into and purses and assorted items were taken. Also that same day, a vehicle belonging to a Wayne, Pa., resident was vandalized at the Sunset Rock parking lot in Lincoln, though nothing was taken from that vehicle. The front passenger windows on the vehicles parked at the Robert Frost Trail were smashed out. The rear driver’s side window on the vehicle at Sunset Rock was smashed out. Anyone with information in regard to these crimes is encouraged to contact state police.
•  On Sept. 24 at 10:34 p.m. stopped a vehicle driven by Monica Swan, 18, of Moriah, N.Y., on Plank Road in New Haven for speeding. During the stop, the trooper said he found Swan possessed a prescribed pill for which she did not have a prescription. He cited Swan for possession of a regulated substance.