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. State police said his condition was serious and life-threatening.
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.
Travelers line up to find out about their flights.
— Tim Johnson
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 could be seen from the nearby bike path and several cyclists stopped and took pictures.
The incident halted much of the commercial flight traffic out of the Island airport. Shortly after 5 p.m., with the plane still in the field, a JetBlue agent told the crowded terminal that larger commercial flights were still grounded.
A departures board showed flights to Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. all delayed, with some estimated to be delayed by more than three hours.
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.
