A female passenger in a Piper Meridian took the controls after the 79-year-old pilot was incapacitated, and she crash-landed the big single off the runway at Martha’s Vineyard Airport in Massachusetts on Saturday. Both were taken to a nearby hospital, but the woman was uninjured and was released. The pilot remains there with an unspecified “serious life-threatening condition.” The aircraft was seriously damaged.
Authorities told local media the plane was on final when the pilot suffered an “undisclosed medical emergency.” State Police said the woman took the controls and flew the plane to “a hard landing outside the runway that caused the aircraft’s left wing to break in half.” Identities of the two have not been released and it’s not known if the passenger had any flight training.
