A woman took over controls and crash-landed a plane at Martha’s Vineyard Airport after the pilot suffered a medical condition.
The primary runway at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport was shut down Saturday afternoon after a plane crashed off the runway while attempting to land.
An 80-year-old man who was piloting the small private plane was having a medical condition while approaching the airport at 3:12 p.m., according to West Tisbury police. A woman who was also in the plane took over the controls, eventually landing the plane with no landing gear down, police said.
The woman, 68, had minor injuries and the man was taken to a Boston hospital by a medical flight. The pilot remained in serious condition as of Monday, state police said.
The Piper Meridian plane was several hundred feet off the runway and in the grass near the southwest corner of the airport property. It was still largely intact, though its left wing broke in half.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were both notified, according to airport director Geoff Freeman, but he couldn’t give any further details during a brief interview with the Gazette at about 4 p.m. Saturday.
The FAA later confirmed that the man and woman were the only two people in the plane and said the NTSB was leading the investigation. According to state police, the pair were from Connecticut and had flown from Westchester, New York earlier in the afternoon.
The plane was removed from the field later Saturday evening and secured at the airport. The primary commercial runway was reopened and some outgoing flights were either canceled or postponed until Sunday.
