EAST WINDSOR, Conn. -- Using a pulley system, crews rescued two people from a plane that crashed into trees in East Windsor on Sunday morning.

A 1930s-era Tiger Moth airplane left the Skylark Airpark at about 9:45 a.m. Sunday, airport officials said.

Plane Crash Leaves Pair In Tree For Hours

The plane, which was headed east, lost its engine power and landed on top of a group of trees about 200-300 feet from runway 10.

The pilot, August Gorreck, told Eyewitness News that the plane lost power soon after takeoff. He said that he and passenger, Susan Williams went plummeting before becoming precariously lodged in trees 50 feet above the ground.

"I had to fly it into the trees," Gorreck said. "I had to fly it into the crash so to speak. We got away with it."

At first, members of a local rescue task force thought a Coast Guard helicopter dispatched from Boston would be able to perform an aerial rescue. That plan was nixed over concerns that the powerful downdraft from the chopper's rotor would dislodge the plane from the trees before the crash victims could be rescued from the fuselage.

A rescue effort from the ground through muddy, dense terrain got to the victims and helped them out of the aircraft.

"We strung some ropes through the trees with the stokes basket, they call it," said Chief James Burton of the Warehouse Point Fire Department. "We were able to lower the patients down to the ground and get them out of harm's way."

The plane remained in the trees on Sunday evening. Airport manager Michael Koczera said he expects that the plane will remain lodged in the trees until Tuesday when a crane will help remove it.

Gorreck and Williams were not injured in the crash. They were freed from the plane just before 1 p.m.