Passenger crashes plane into Martha’s Vineyard after pilot, 79, has medical emergency
Female passenger, 68, in small plane forced to take control and make emergency landing on Martha’s Vineyard after 79 pilot suffers medical emergency – and is taken to hospital in life-threatening condition
- The plane was flying from Westchester County, New York, about an hour away
- Pilot had to be freed from plane and is now in mortal danger
- Passenger is unharmed, despite the plane’s wing breaking in half on landing
A 68-year-old female passenger managed to land a small plane on a Massachusetts island after the elderly pilot suffered a medical emergency.
The pilot, aged 79, was incapacitated mid-flight Saturday by an unknown medical incident, but the quick-thinking passenger seized control and managed to ground the plane near Martha’s Vineyard Airport in West Tisbury.
Their plane had flown in from New York’s Westchester County, about an hour’s flight from Martha’s Vineyard.
Massachusetts State Police said the crash “resulted in a hard landing off the runway that broke the plane’s left wing in two.”
A short clip of the aftermath shows the plane – a 2006 Piper Meridian – on the grass with the side door open, surrounded by official vehicles and several people in safety vests.
A small plane made an emergency landing close to a runway at Martha’s Vineyard Airport on Saturday after the 79-year-old pilot suffered an undefined medical emergency mid-flight and a quick-thinking female passenger, 68, took control and managed to land the plane. to hold
Local police said the plane landed on its belly without the usual grounding preparations, and the pilot had to be evacuated from the plane.
He was flown to a hospital in Boston in life-threatening condition, while the female passenger was also taken to hospital, but was soon released without injury.
The runway at Martha’s Vineyard Airport was initially closed, but reopened a short time later on Saturday.
John F. Kennedy Jr. — the son of the former president — died in a nearby plane crash almost exactly 24 years ago
The aircraft has been moved to a safe location at the airport.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation, assisted by the Massachusetts State Police and the FAA.
The FAA is expected to release a preliminary report on Monday.
The crash comes nearly 24 years to the day John F Kennedy Jr. — the son of former US President JFK — died after a light plane he was flying in crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the same island.
Kennedy Jr.’s wife, Carolyn Bessette, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette were also on board and died in the crash on July 16, 1999.
Their Piper Saratoga took off from New Jersey’s Essex County Airport and took a route along the Connecticut coastline and across Rhode Island Sound to Martha’s Vineyard Airport
Their plane — a 2006 Piper Meridian — had flown from New York’s Westchester County, about an hour’s flight from Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the south coast of Massachusetts.
Kennedy Jr. (right) and his wife Carolyn Bessette (left) — as well as her sister Lauren Bessette — were aboard the doomed plane when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on July 16, 1999, near Martha’s Vineyard.
Kennedy Jr. was flying a Piper Saratoga PA-32R-301T from New York to Martha’s Vineyard when disaster struck. In the photo: the model of the plane he piloted
The official investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that Kennedy suffered spatial disorientation while descending over water at night and lost control of his plane as a result.
Their report added that “haze” and the “dark night” conditions may also have contributed to the crash.
The deaths were the latest in a long history of tragedies to affect the presidential family that have come to be known as the “Curse of the Kennedys.”