Police identify crash victim
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
Maine State Police have identified the two occupants of a small plane that crashed in the woods northwest of Portage Lake the evening of Monday, March 14. Killed in the crash was Paul Oberman, 53, of Toronto, who was a passenger. The pilot, Ryan Isaac, 31, also from Toronto, suffered a broken arm and was transported from the crash site by a Canadian search and rescue helicopter and flown to a Quebec hospital.
Isaac told investigators that he was piloting the plane and the two men were returning to Quebec from Halifax, Nova Scotia, when the plane started icing up. Heavy snow had fallen in the area Monday, with blowing snow continuing throughout the evening.
The plane landed on a frozen bog, created by beavers, where the plane broke apart. The crash site — about 55 miles due west of Portage — is deep into the Maine woods, about eight miles from the nearest road. A team of Maine game wardens and state police arrived at the crash site Tuesday morning, using snowmobiles and snowshoes to reach the crash site and remove Oberman’s body. Personnel from Duncan Graves Funeral Home in Presque Isle met the search team near Portage to transport the deceased to their facility later that day.
Oberman, the president and CEO of Woodcliffe Landmark Properties, was well-known for his work in preserving a number of historic buildings throughout Canada, including restoring Summerhill Station (North Toronto Station) as an LCBO store. He leaves behind a wife and six children.
The cause of the crash remained under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board as of press time.
