In a chilling midsummer tragedy that made overnight headlines around the world and quickly put the Vineyard beneath the harsh spotlight of the national media, a small airplane flown by John F. Kennedy Jr. plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the western end of the Island on Friday night.

A single engine aircraft had a rough landing at Katama Airpark Monday. The pilot of the Piper Cherokee PA-32-26 was unhurt, but the propeller and nose of the plane were damaged. The Edgartown fire department and state police responded to the grass airfield.

A six-passenger aircraft veered off the main runway at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport shortly before noon Saturday when the plane’s landing gear collapsed. The pilot, a passenger, and a dog, were unhurt, officials said.

Allen P. Spaulding Jr., 70, was the sole occupant of the 1965 fixed-wing Maule Bee Dee M-4-210 that crashed Wednesday morning on Cuttyhunk, state police said. The pilot was determined to be dead at the scene.

State police late Wednesday identified the pilot in a fatal morning plane crash on Cuttyhunk as Allen P. Spaulding Jr., 70, of Wilmington De.

Police said the facts and circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation.

Mr. Spaulding, a longtime resident of Cuttyhunk, was the sole occupant of a 1965 fixed-wing Maule Bee Dee M-4-210 aircraft that crashed on a remote strip of land at the west end of the island. Cuttyhunk lies at the tip of the Elizabeth islands chain, to the west of Martha's Vineyard.