Two Vineyard residents were treated for minor injuries after their plane crash-landed between the bridges on Joseph Sylvia State Beach on Saturday night.
Jean Dupon, 67, and Susan King, 45, both of Edgartown, were treated and released from Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, state police trooper David Parent confirmed.
The single-engine Piper aircraft was pointed out to sea, propeller blades slightly bent, no undercarriage evident, with obvious damage under the fuselage but otherwise remarkably intact on state beach on Sunday.
State trooper Robert Branca confirmed on Sunday that the plane was on approach to Martha’s Vineyard Airport on Saturday when it had engine problems about 8:45 p.m.
“It hit one of those wooden barriers on State Beach,” he said, referring to a couple of new groynes put in to hold sand.
“[Mr. Dupon] put it down a little on the beach and a little in the water. It was right on the edge when we got there.
“It was not submerged, but it was in the waves.”
The pilot and his passenger were treated by EMS personnel at the scene and then taken to Martha’s Vineyard hospital for treatment for minor injuries. “They were released within an hour-and-a-half,” Trooper Branca said.
“They were both lucky. To hit a wooden structure on the beach and still be able to land it without flipping it over, that’s pretty good,” he said.
Trooper Branca said he conducted a brief interview with both Mr. Dupon and his passenger, who were lucid and “pretty collected,” he said.
Witnesses described the emergency response as excellent.
The FAA and Mass Aeronautics are handling the incident investigation.
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