The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the Whitefield helicopter crash in which a pilot escaped serious injury on May 30, an NTSB investigator said June 2.

The agency has given Maine Helicopters permission to take the aircraft out of the woods where the crash occurred and return it to the business, but has not given the business permission to examine the helicopter, NTSB air safety investigator Brian Rayner said.

The Federal Aviation Administration did on-scene work on May 31 and may continue to help, but the NTSB will take the lead and will send a small team to examine the helicopter, Rayner said in a telephone interview Monday. Parts of the craft may be removed and taken to a lab or a factory for further study, Rayner said.

Rayner, one of about 45 air safety investigators in the 400-investigator transportation safety agency, estimated the investigation will take about a year.

The NTSB investigates aircraft crashes if there is either substantial damage to the craft or serious injury to any occupants, Rayner said.

“Thankfully, in this instance, it’s because of the substantial damage, and not serious injury to the occupant,” he said.

FAA and Lincoln County Sheriff’s officials have said the pilot was alone in the helicopter when it crashed in the woods off East River Road on Friday afternoon. A sheriff’s detective said the pilot told another officer that the helicopter had run out fuel.

Asked about the reported statement, Rayner said some fuel was recovered from the aircraft, but that he had no additional information about it. The investigation will include a look at the entire fuel system, including the fuel pump and fuel lines, he said.

The agency will look at the same things it looks at in any investigation, including the pilot’s training and experience, and environmental aspects such as wind conditions, Rayner said.

“Then we’re going to see what falls out.”

The Wiscasset Newspaper has been unable to confirm the pilot’s identity. East River Road resident Kathleen Woodbury found him on her land after she and several other people in the area heard the crash. When she got to him on her all-terrain vehicle, he was on his feet and bleeding from the head. Woodbury said that the pilot said he was fine.