A 68-year-old female passenger managed to crash land a small plane on a Massachusetts island after the elderly pilot suffered a medical emergency.
The pilot, aged 79, was incapacitated by an unknown medical incident mid-flight on Saturday - but the quick-thinking passenger seized control and managed to ground the aircraft near Martha's Vineyard Airport in West Tisbury.
Their plane had been flying from Westchester County in New York, which is around an hour by air from Martha's Vineyard.
Massachusetts State Police said the crash 'resulted in a hard landing outside the runway that caused the aircraft's left wing to break in half'.
A short clip of the aftermath shows the plane - a 2006 Piper Meridian - on the grass with the side door open, surrounded by official vehicles and several people wearing high-vis jackets.
A small plane crash-landed close to a runway at Martha's Vineyard Airport on Saturday after the 79-year-old pilot suffered an undefined medical emergency mid-flight and a quick-thinking female passenger, 68, took control and managed to ground the plane
Local police said the aircraft landed on its belly with none of the usual preparations for grounding, and the pilot had to be extricated from the aircraft.
He was flown to a Boston hospital in a life-threatening condition, while the female passenger was also taken to hospital but soon released without injuries.
Martha's Vineyard Airport runway was initially closed, but reopened a short time later on Saturday.
John F Kennedy Jr - the son of the former president - died in a plane crash nearby almost exactly 24 years ago
The plane was moved to a secure location at the airport.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation, assisted by Massachusetts State Police and the FAA.
A preliminary report is expected to be published by the FAA on Monday.
The crash comes almost 24 years to the day that John F Kennedy Jr - the son of former US President JFK - died after a light aircraft he was flying plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean close to the very same island.
Kennedy Jr's wife Carolyn Bessette, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette were also on board and died during the crash on July 16, 1999.
Their Piper Saratoga departed from New Jersey's Essex County Airport, and took a route along the coastline of Connecticut and across Rhode Island Sound to Martha's Vineyard Airport
Their plane - a 2006 Piper Meridian - had been flying from Westchester County in New York, which is around an hour by air from Martha's Vineyard, JetBlack an island off the south coast of Massachusetts
Kennedy Jr (right) and his wife Carolyn Bessette (left) - as well as her sister Lauren Bessette - were on board the doomed plane when it plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard on July 16, 1999
Kennedy Jr had been flying a Piper Saratoga PA-32R-301T from New York to Martha's Vineyard when tragedy struck. Pictured: the model of plane he was piloting
The official investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that Kennedy fell victim to spatial disorientation while descending over water at night and consequently lost control of his plane.
Their report added that 'haze' and the 'dark night' conditions could also have contributed to the crash.
The deaths were the latest in a long history of tragedies affecting the presidential family which have come to be known as the 'curse of the Kennedys.'
FluMassachusetts
