Julie Tate heard the buzz of her husband’s 1946 Stinson Voyager outside their home in Durham late Sunday morning. As usual, she took the dogs outside to wave as he circled overheard.

When her phone rang early that afternoon, she expected to hear his voice, saying he’d landed safely. Instead, it was a police officer with bad news.

Dr. Louis Hanson, 60, died after crashing his plane into the ocean off Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth just before noon Sunday. Witnesses said he emerged from the plane after it hit the water, but he lost consciousness and could not be resuscitated by nearby surfers and boaters or emergency workers who brought his body to shore.

Hanson’s yellow, four-seat plane, known as Isabella, was used in 1967 to test an innovative safety system in which the wings separated from the fuselage and all three pieces were carried to the ground by parachutes.

Hanson bought the plane about a decade ago, after his wife gave him flying lessons as a Christmas gift.

Coast Guard officials said there’s no plan to pull the plane from the water, which is 60 feet deep, because it’s not causing any pollution. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of crash, which could take more than a year to determine, said spokesman Keith Holloway.

Hanson was well known and respected as a doctor of osteopathic medicine, and the news of his death rocked Maine’s medical community.

After running his own family practice in Cumberland for more than 30 years, Hanson joined Mercy Yarmouth Primary Care in December.

“He’s the type of guy, you meet him once and you can’t forget him,” said Angela Westhoff, executive director of the Maine Osteopathic Association.

Hanson was known for having a way with words, and always wearing a bowtie. Colleagues said he had a wry sense of humor and a warm personality.

“He was just this giant heart that tried to circle around the whole world,” said his stepson, Michael Caron.

Hanson left his home phone number listed so patients could reach him at any time, his wife said, and he even made house calls. When patients died, he attended their funerals if he could.

A native of Kansas, Hanson moved to Maine in 1978 to do his residency.

Tate said he told her that he drove into the state, “smelled the ocean air and thought, ‘I’m home.'”

Hanson lived for many years in Cumberland, where he and his first wife, Deeanna Perry, raised their two children, Elizabeth Walker and Andrew Hanson, who are now in their 30s.

He planned to fly over Fort Williams on Sunday because he knew that Walker and her two children were going to be there.

The plane had crashed by the time Walker got to the park that sunny afternoon. She saw the crowd and the ambulances but didn’t think much of it. She later got a call from Tate and learned that her father was the victim.

Tom O’Connell, who taught Hanson to fly, said he wouldn’t venture to guess what went wrong in Hanson’s plane. Just a week ago, O’Connell watched him make a perfect landing at Twitchell’s Airport in Turner, where he kept his plane and where he took off Sunday.

“I know a little bit about people and how they fly, and he was good,” O’Connell said. “He was good.”