- When the pilot fell ill mid-air, a female (68) onboard took control of the aircraft and crash-landed it on an island without any landing gear.
- The identity of the pilot and the passenger was not revealed by the authorities and both were admitted to a hospital.
- Pilot in life-threatening condition, passenger uninjured
- The incident was a reminder of a similar crash that took place almost 24 years before in which John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and her sister were killed.
A 68-year-old woman, who was on board a small aeroplane, took control of the aircraft and crash-landed it on an island without any landing gear after the pilot fell ill mid-air, said police.
The crash took place near Martha’s Vineyard Airport in West Tisbury, Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon. During the final approach of the plane, the male pilot, aged 79, suffered an emergency, informed Massachusetts State Police.
“The crash resulted in a hard landing outside the runway that caused the aircraft’s left wing to break in half,” The Washington Post quoted the state police as saying. Local police stated that the flight landed on its belly without any landing gear and the pilot was extricated from the plane.
However, the identity of the pilot and the passenger was not revealed by the authorities and both were admitted to a hospital. The pilot, who had a life-threatening condition, was then flown to a Boston hospital. The female passenger remained uninjured and was discharged from a local hospital, reported The Post citing the police. The 2006 Piper Meridian aeroplane had departed from Westchester County, New York. The passenger and pilot both are residents of Connecticut, stated police.
The crash is being investigated by National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration and state police. An FAA spokesperson stated that NTSB has been in charge of the crash’s investigation.
The officials removed the aircraft and took it to a secure location at the airport and cleared the crash scene, reported The Post citing the state police. West Tisbury police said that the short runway was opened by the airport and continued operations slowly on Saturday. The FAA stated that a preliminary accident/incident report will be posted by them mostly by the next business day.
The incident was a reminder of a similar crash that took place almost 24 years before in which John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette were killed in Martha’s Vineyard.
The plane had crashed off the Massachusetts coast because the son of the late US president was experiencing spatial disorientation while the aircraft was descending over water at night.
The safety board had said the probable cause of the crash was “the pilot’s failure to maintain control of the aeroplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation. Factors in the accident were haze and the dark night.”
(With inputs from agencies)
