POULSBO — Mark Freiboth was at his sister’s farm on Noll Road midway between Lincoln and Mesford roads when he saw the plane making small turns over an adjacent clearcut area about 3:30 p.m. Jan. 20.

“I thought, what a cool little plane,” Freiboth said. “It was flying a little low — it was higher than [nearby] trees, but I could see that it was a neat little silver plane.”

About a half-hour later, emergency personnel drove up his sister’s long driveway. Neighbors didn’t hear the plane crash in the clearcut area. The pilot, still in the plane, called 9-1-1 on his cell phone when he awakened from being unconscious.

The unidentified pilot was taken to a hospital with injuries.

The single-engine, fixed-wing plane crashed in a clearcut area near Noll and Lincoln roads. Poulsbo Fire Battalion Chief Jim Gillard didn’t know how much time had elapsed between the time the plane crashed and when the pilot called 9-1-1. Freiboth said he saw the plane fly over about 3:30 p.m. The engine was cool to the touch by the time emergency personnel arrived at the scene, at 4 p.m.

There were no passengers in the plane.

Poulsbo Fire Department was dispatched to the scene, along with Poulsbo Police and Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office deputies. A crew from North Kitsap Fire & Rescue’s Suquamish station also went to the scene, NKF&R spokeswoman Michele Laboda said.

Emergency personnel removed the pilot from the plane and fitted him with a neck brace. He was sitting up and answering questions from medics before they placed him on a litter and took him to the ambulance. It is unknown which hospital the pilot was taken to from the crash site.

According to the FAA’s online registry, the aircraft was a single-engine Ercoupe, model 415-C, manufactured in 1946. The pilot was heard telling emergency personnel that he had taken off from Auburn.

Above, emergency personnel navigate clearcut terrain to get the pilot of a plane from the crash scene to a nearby ambulance, Jan. 20. Richard Walker / Herald