A woman who crash-landed her 79-year-old husband’s plane on Martha's Vineyard last month reported that he became incapacitated behind the controls, a month after his Federal Aviation Administration medical certificate had been updated, investigators said Wednesday.
Randolph Bonnist, of Norwalk, Connecticut, previously had to provide extensive medical documentation to continue flying after some sort of health concern, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report.
His wife, identified by local investigators as Robin Bonnist, reported that Randolph Bonnist “blacked out” after performing a go-around maneuver while on approach to the airport on the Massachusetts island and she said there were “no mechanical issues whatsoever” with the single-engine airplane, the NTSB said.
She "was not a pilot, assumed the flight controls and maneuvered the airplane for a gear-up landing on airport
property," the report said.
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The Piper PA46, without its landing gear in position, bounced several times before coming to rest upright on July 15. Bonnist died five days later at Boston Medical Center. His wife was unhurt.
Bonnist held a third-class medical certificate from the FAA that was issued on June 1, and he was previously granted a special issuance medical certificate that required extra documentation, the NTSB said.
The Federal Aviation Administration previously confirmed two people were on board when the single-engine 2006 Piper Meridian crashed while landing at the airport in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, around 3:15 p.m. Saturday. The plane landed in a grassy area near the runway.
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State and local police initially said the pilot was having a medical episode upon approach, forcing his passenger to take over the controls. The plane had departed from Westchester, New York.
The woman attempted to land the aircraft, which resulted in a hard landing outside the runway, causing the aircraft's left wing to break in half, state police said. Local police described the incident as a the plane landing on its belly with no landing gear and said the pilot had to be extricated from the plane.
