GREENE — A family of five attempting to rescue a man from a sinking paddle boat in the Androscoggin River on Thursday was forced to swim to shore in the frigid water after their own boat flipped during the rescue.

Pilot Frank McCutcheon Jr., an instructor working out of Twitchell’s Airport in Turner for the summer, was flying above the river with a passenger, who is also a pilot, around 3 p.m. when the two pilots spotted a man drifting in a swamped paddle boat near Gulf Island close to Androscoggin Riverlands State Park.

“We thought it looked like it was sinking,” McCutcheon said, so we “tried to get up close to him but couldn’t. We didn’t want to get too close with our propeller.”

The man in the paddle boat was wearing a life jacket, and the boat was sinking into the water.

McCutcheon said they looked toward the boat launch and saw people there, so he landed the seaplane near the launch and yelled to the people that there was a man in the water who needed help.

The people near the boat launch were Carlos Portillo of Turner and his family, including his pregnant wife and three children. He had just taken the family for a ride in their new 16-foot speedboat, and agreed to help. 

The family motored out to find the man and were able to pull him into their boat, McCutcheon said. When the family attempted to tow the waterlogged paddle boat, McCutcheon said, they heard a loud snap as the tow rope ripped the engine off the back of the speedboat.

“They started screaming to us that they were sinking,” McCutcheon said.

“We started going down,” Portillo said. “I had to get everybody to the nose of the boat, but that didn’t last long. The whole boat flipped over and we were in the water. We had to start swimming.”

The men in the plane continued to advance, trying to pluck as many people as possible out of the water.

“We got as close as we could,” McCutcheon said, “and were able to grab the little girl, who was 5 years old, and pull her into the plane. She was shaking. We tried to calm her down and keep her warm.”

McCutcheon, who has been a pilot for five years, maneuvered the plane toward the boats close enough to reach Portillo, who was holding the 5-year-old. McCutcheon said he grabbed Portillo’s hand and pulled him toward the plane, and lifted the girl into the cockpit.

McCutcheon’s passenger, a California man who was visiting family in Maine, jumped out of the plane and swam toward the sinking boats to help.

While McCutcheon tried to keep the plane close by, turning it on and off to maintain his position in the wind, the pregnant woman helped two little boys swim to shore and Portillo helped the man from the paddle boat. 

According to Portillo, the five were forced to swim about 50 yards against the current to make it to shore.

“It’s all worth it,” he said later. “Everyone’s safe and sound. That’s what matters.”

The rescue effort, as it turned out, was multi-pronged.

First responders from Greene and surrounding towns, the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine Warden Service were called to the boat launch to assist.

When Warden Dave Chabot heard about the situation, he called his friend Don Fortin, who lives on the river roughly 4 miles away and keeps a boat on the water. Fortin told the warden to take the boat and Chabot steered the craft up to the crash site.

Meanwhile, Androscoggin County Chief Deputy William Gagne borrowed a boat from a man at the nearby launch and made his way out onto the river to help.

When everyone was out of the water, McCutcheon maneuvered his plane close enough to shore for his passenger to wade through waist-deep water to get back on board before the two returned to the airport.

“I’m just glad everyone is OK,” McCutcheon said, “especially the little kids, especially in cold water. It doesn’t take long for their temperature to drop.

“The other guy,” he said. “If no one else saw him, who knows what would have happened to him.”

The man from the paddle boat has a mental disability, witnesses said. After he was rescued and examined by paramedics, a sheriff’s deputy took him home.

Rescuers from the Warden Service headed back out toward Gulf Island to salvage the boats.

Portillo said he had just bought the speedboat two days ago. He wasn’t much concerned about it in the aftermath of the near-tragedy.

“That’s just material stuff,” he said.