Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson, three others, escape injury in plane crash

Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson and three others are “really lucky” to have survived a float-plane crash officials say.

Robertson’s plane, which he was piloting went down in the woods near Baptiste Lake, about 10 minutes north of Bancroft early Sunday afternoon.

“Everyone is fine and that is the important thing,” said Adam Smith, a spokesman for the band, said Sunday night in an e-mail to The Intelligencer. “That’s all the comment we have at this time.”

“At 12:30 p.m. a Cessna 206 was taking off from Baptiste Lake, lost airspeed and entered a wooded area west of the lake,” Sgt. Jeff MacKinnon of Bancroft OPP said in a telephone interview.

There was gusting winds and the plane apparently went into a stall.Following the stall, the plane went straight down into the trees. It hung up into a large tree, nose down, and its nose is resting on the ground.

The doors were jammed; and the passengers struggled to get out. They had to get out through a window.

The plane was totaled but all four adults managed to walk out of the woods unscratched in the accident and soon reported the crash.