Following a medical emergency, a passenger grabbed control of a tiny plane and crash-landed on an island in Massachusetts, according to The Washington Post. The event occurred on Saturday afternoon in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, near Martha’s Vineyard Airport. According to Massachusetts State Police, the 79-year-old male pilot experienced an emergency during the plane’s final approach.
Both the pilot and the passenger are Connecticut citizens
“The crash resulted in a hard landing outside the runway that caused the aircraft’s left wing to break in half,” The Post quoted the state police as saying.
However, authorities did not identify either passenger on the plane and stated that both were taken to a hospital.
The pilot was then airlifted to a Boston hospital in critical condition. According to The Post, the female passenger was unharmed and was released from a local hospital.
The 2006 Piper Meridian jet took off earlier Saturday afternoon from Westchester County, New York. According to officials, both the pilot and the passenger are Connecticut citizens.
The crash is being investigated by the state police, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the Federal Aviation Administration. According to an FAA official, the NTSB is in charge of the inquiry.
According to The Post, the aircraft was dismantled and brought to a secure location at the airport, and the crash site was cleared.
The disaster occurred almost 24 years to the day after a Piper crash off Martha’s Vineyard killed John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren Bessette.