The pilot of a small plane that crash-landed near a runway at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts on July 15 after suffering a medical emergency has died, according to officials.
Randolph Bonnist, 79, of Norwalk, Connecticut died on Thursday night at the Boston Medical Center, Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois’s office said in a statement.
Bonnist was piloting a 2006 Piper Meridian and making his final approach into Martha’s Vineyard Airport in West Tisbury when he suffered a medical emergency.
His wife, 68-year-old Robin Bonnist, took the controls and tried to land the small plane, which resulted in a hard landing in a grassy area near the runway.
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Massachusetts State Police said the hard landing caused the aircraft’s left wing to break in half.
Robin was not injured in the crash.
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Still, she and her husband were taken to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital after the crash.
Randolph was flown to Boston Medical and listed in serious life-threatening condition.
The district attorney’s office said representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the cause of the crash, and no foul play is suspected.
The couple took off from the Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York earlier that day.
The crash happened almost 24 years to the day after a Piper crash killed John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette off Martha’s Vineyard.
