A PHOTO FROM the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office shows a wrecked Piper Super Cub loaded Friday for transport out of the Fumee Lake Natural Area in Breitung Township. The plane crashed Jan. 19 and the pilot survived without serious injury.

IRON MOUNTAIN — A single-engine plane that crashed 10 days ago at Big Fumee Lake in Breitung Township has been removed from the Dickinson County natural area with no contamination occurring, a county official reported.

Pete Schlitt, the county’s deputy director for emergency services, said pilot Ivan Venner, 62, of Iron Mountain, wore a safety harness that helped him escape critical injury. The National Transportation Safety Board will continue to investigate, but it appears Venner lost vertical perception and clipped a wing while en route to Kingsford’s Ford Airport, Schlitt told the county board Monday.

The sheriff’s office was alerted to the crash of the Piper Super Cub about 1:45 p.m. Jan. 19, with a caller saying the pilot was walking toward the Fumee Lake Natural Area parking lot. He was taken by emergency responders to Dickinson County Memorial Hospital, where he was treated and released.

The badly damaged plane, which was upside-down at the middle of the lake, was removed Friday by Myers Aviation of Oshkosh, Wis., Schlitt said.

Because of the federal shutdown, there was a delay of several days in gaining permission to remove the aircraft. However, there was no oil leakage or any other evidence of contamination, Schlitt said.

“I’m extremely happy with how it went down,” he said.

Myers workers spent about three hours Friday morning sawing off the plane’s wings and using a tracked vehicle to get the wreckage off the ice, leaving no damage to Fumee’s trails, he added.

The plane was transported to Oshkosh for an NTSB inspection.