WEST OSSIPEE, N.H. -- With only seconds to escape, a West Ossipee pilot parachuted out of his plane to safety over the weekend.

 

L.D. Jeffries was doing aerobatic maneuvers on Sunday when he got into a spin he couldn't control. The plane took a nosedive into the ground, and he said that if he hadn't gotten out, he would have been seriously hurt.

 

Jeffries flies commercially for his job, and he and his wife fly their own planes. But his single-engine plane, "Plum Crazy," was destroyed after it spun out of control when Jeffries tried one last maneuver for the day.

 

"The last maneuver I was planning on coming back after that maneuver, I was getting ready to land," he said.

 

Jeffries said he tried everything he could to get out of the spin while the plane plummeted toward the ground at more than 120 mph. When everything failed, he resorted to a promise he had made to himself.

 

"I set that rule a long time ago that if I was in an airplane and it was out of control and it was 1,500 feet or below, I was going to leave the airplane," he said. "So I did what I said I was always going to do. I pulled the canopy release. The canopy disappeared, I undid my two lap belts, and the next thing I knew, I was in free fall."

 

A second later, Jeffries was pulling the release on his parachute, watching his plane tumble out of the sky next to him. The plane crashed into a clearing off of Mile High Circle within the Soaring Heights Aviation Community, a private airport community.

 

"The lore goes when you use the silk to save your life, you owe the rigger a bottle of his choice," Jeffries said. "So I've got to get a hold of (the rigger), and I hope he doesn't drink expensive liquor. But if he does, he's getting whatever he wants."

 

Jeffries is a former paramilitary, and he used to parachute out of planes to rescue people. He said he has parachuted at least 1,000 times, and he said this time was just more expensive.