On Saturday afternoon, when the pilot of a private plane suffered a medical episode, a passenger took over the controls and landed in a field at Martha’s Vineyard Airport. Massachusetts State Police say that the 79-year-old pilot was having a “medical emergency” as they approached the airport and the only other person onboard, a 68-year-old female passenger, took control of the aircraft, making a hard landing, with no landing gear down, in a grassy field beside a runway.
The six-seater Piper Meridian TurboProp plane had departed from Westchester, New York, earlier in the afternoon and had its left wing broken in half during the rocky landing. The pilot was immediately transported by medical helicopter to Boston Hospital and was reported to be in serious condition, and the passenger, who only had minor injuries, was checked out at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and released.
The plane was moved to a secure location later on Saturday, and an investigation by the Massachusetts State Police, Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board is underway. The incident grounded most of the commercial flights in and out of the airport for several hours.
Source: PEOPLE