MITCHELL, S.D. — Mitchell’s city attorney suffered a gash to his forehead that required stitches but was otherwise OK after he crashed a small airplane in Minnesota.

Carl Koch, 65, recently bought a recreational light aircraft in Wisconsin and was flying it back to South Dakota last Saturday when the plane lost power near Caledonia and crashed into a grove of trees, reports said.

“The treetops absorbed the energy,” Koch said.

Koch was treated at a hospital in La Crosse, Wis. He said he feels lucky he wasn’t more seriously injured.

“There is an old saying in flying that any landing you walk away from is a good landing,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting a landing like this by any means, but these things happen and you do what you have to do and make the best of it.”

Koch said he doesn’t plan to buy another plane anytime soon.

“My wife went through such distress that I’m not going to expose her to worry about whether or not there is any possibility of this ever happening again,” he said.