Local pilot Robert Bucksbaum crashed his Cirrus SR22 single-engine airplane into the side of Colorado Custom Cabinets on Sunday near Animas Air Park.

Bucksbaum was trying to land and probably caught a gust of wind that pushed him off course, said Bob Hansen, owner of Colorado Custom Cabinets.

The plane plowed through a chain-link fence and ran into the side of the building near the southwest end of the runway, he said.

The plane ended up hitting the spray booth, which is a section of the building surrounded in sheet metal that Hansen uses to finish his cabinets.

“He is lucky to be alive,” he said. “If he had hit any other part of the building, or the cement barriers, he would have been dead.”

Bucksbaum would have gone straight through the building had he not crashed into the sheet metal, Hansen said.

Bucksbaum declined to be interviewed.

Tom Gurr, landlord of several buildings at Animas Air Park, said Bucksbaum walked away from the crash with minimal injuries.

“He had a small bump on the back of his head,” Gurr said.

There was more damage done to the building than anything else, he said.

“I’m always worried about something like this happening,” Gurr said. “We’ve had plane crashes here and there, but never one that went through a fence and into one of my buildings. This was the first and hopefully the last.”

Since the crash, Bucksbaum has not contacted Hansen with his insurance information.

Hansen said he probably will have to pay out-of-pocket to fix damages and get reimbursed later.

tferraro@durangoherald.com