BOSTON — The pilot of a small plane that crash-landed on the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard last weekend after he suffered a medical emergency has died, authorities said.
Randolph Bonnist, 79, of Norwalk, Connecticut, died at a Boston hospital on Thursday night, according to a statement from the office of Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois.
The plane was on its final approach to Martha’s Vineyard Airport in West Tisbury, Massachusetts on July 15 when Bonnist fell ill and his wife took the controls, which “resulted in a hard landing outside the runway that caused the aircraft’s left wing to break in half,” state police said at the time.
Bonnist’s wife was not injured.
The 2006 Piper Meridian airplane departed from Westchester County, New York, earlier that afternoon.
The crash is being investigated by state police, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. An FAA spokesperson said the NTSB is in charge of the investigation.
It is not considered suspicious, Galibois said.
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.
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