The pilot of a small plane that crash-landed at the Concord airport on Wednesday morning was uninjured.

The single-engine kit plane lost control in the air above the airport but the pilot was able to circle it around before it came to rest on grassy area a couple dozen feet from the airport’s perimeter on Regional Drive, according to three witnesses.

“He had some control issues,” said pilot Justin Werner, who observed the incident. “He was able to circle around the plane until it was in a safe position to land on the airport property.”

The incident happened shortly after takeoff when one of the plane’s doors opened and the pilot was unable to close it, according to state police.

“Due to the open door, the pilot reported the aerodynamics of the plane were compromised and forced the plane into a perpetual left turn,” state police said in a statement. “However, the pilot was able to fly the plane over the airfield and eventually made an emergency landing in a grassy area north of a taxiway.”

The pilot Dana Clow, 71, of Hillsborough, declined an interview request with the Monitor.

The two-seat plane, a 2008 Holtz Rodney R Challenger II, was considered an “experimental light-sport aircraft” by state police.

Clow assumed ownership of the plane on Oct. 30, less than a month ago. Previously, the plane was registered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, according to the flight tracking database Flightaware.

Witness Colby Chown, 29, from Allenstown, was driving past the airport on his way home when he saw the aircraft in distress and pulled over.

Chown said it looked like the plane was going to hit the airport’s perimeter fence but the pilot regained control and was able to turn around and bring the aircraft for a landing.

“It freaked me out,” said Chown, who works as a carpenter  in Concord.

Ben Rossi, a pilot who also witnessed the crash-landing, said that type of landing is quite rare, though he said the plane “wasn’t dangerously out of control.”

“It took us a while to realize something was unusual,” said Rossi, who described the situation as “extremely well handled” by the pilot.

Authorities responded to the report of a plane crash just before 11 a.m. but due to the lack of damage and injury, they left soon after.