Updated: Thu Jul. 16 2009 12:10:16 PM

ctvottawa.ca

A male pilot was able to walk away from a plane crash at CFB Trenton Wednesday afternoon.

Emergency crews were called to the scene when the small jet crashed shortly after takeoff.

"When I pulled up, he had already got out of the aircraft and was sitting on the bank of the ditch," Quinte West Fire Chief John Whalen told CTV Ottawa.

"I watched him. He stood up and walked to the ambulance."

The plane is intact and the male pilot was the only occupant on-board. The CT-33 jet is registered to an American address in Houston, Texas.

The plane crashed into a ditch just metres away from a fence that separates the base from municipal property.

Ryan Turcotte, a firefighter with the CFB Trenton fire department, watched as the aircraft took off and crashed, taking quick action to prevent the plane from bursting into flames.

"Myself and my fellow firefighter were on scene within 30 seconds and had applied a foam blanket that smothered the fuel vapors and prevented ignition," Turcotte wrote in an email to CTV Ottawa.

The crash happened just prior to a change of command ceremony at the base.