Game warden pilot Joshua Tibbetts made a low-altitude turn over waterways while helping stock fish in waterways before he was killed in a Tuesday plane crash near a western Maine pond.
Flight tracking data showed that Tibbetts, 50, took off around 8 a.m. from Dry Pond Seaplane Base on Crystal Lake in Gray, piloting a Cessna A185F Skywagon. He had served 18 years with the Maine Warden Service and became a warden service pilot in late 2023.
It was the first line-of-duty death for the warden service since another plane crash in 2011, happening as Gov. Janet Mills, lawmakers and police officials gathered at the annual observance at the Maine Law Enforcement Officers Memorial outside the State House in Augusta.
Tibbetts began the day by flying north to Rangeley Lake before turning southeast, according to data from ADS-B Exchange, a flight tracking service that collects real-time transponder signals.
He passed over Phillips and came within a couple miles of Strong, near Route 4. He then turned back north and began circling in the direction he had come from before the plane went down. The plane was at less than 1,800 feet before falling off the radar at 10:44 a.m.
Officials said Tibbetts’ looping route was not out of the ordinary and that his itinerary did not deviate from his plan of helping fisheries officials with stocking in lakes and ponds.
“That does not surprise us that he was circling and looking over the area,” Maine Warden Service Col. Dan Scott told reporters at an Augusta news conference.
Interim Commissioner Tim Peabody of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said it is typical for warden pilots to fly irregular, non-linear routes. It is also typical for them to fly solo, Scott said.
Tammy Baker-Paradis saw the plane flying low near Route 4 and told the Bangor Daily News that it disappeared in just a few seconds when she glanced back at the road. She described watching the plane teeter back and forth, which she attributed to the wind.
The last recorded GPS coordinates placed the aircraft on Schoolhouse Pond Road, southwest of the pond and northwest of Day Mountain. Officials found no indication of a distress signal or a medical emergency before the crash.
An automatic crash detector notified dispatch of the crash, Scott said. There are no immediate roads near the crash site, so the warden service sent a plane and Maine Forest Service helicopters worked to find it, Scott said.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash but were not on scene as of Tuesday afternoon, Scott and Peabody said.
