A pilot of a small plane suffered a medical emergency in the air Saturday, prompting a passenger to take over controls and make a crash landing with no landing gear at Martha’s Vineyard Airport, authorities said.
The pilot of the aircraft, a Piper Meridian Turboprop six-seater plane, suffered a medical condition as it approached the airport Saturday afternoon, the West Tisbury Police Department said in a statement.
The passenger then took over the controls and “crash landed” at approximately 3:15 p.m. in the grass near a runway, Massachusetts State Police said. The hard landing caused the aircraft’s left wing to break in half, state police said.
The woman, 68, suffered minor injuries, West Tisbury police said. The man was extricated from the plane and flown to a Boston hospital in serious, life-threatening condition, state police said. Both are Connecticut residents, according to state police.
The plane had departed from Westchester, New York, earlier in the afternoon.