A passenger of a small aeroplane in the US took the controls and crash-landed on an island on Saturday after the pilot suffered a medical emergency, police said.

The crash happened on Saturday afternoon (local time) near Martha’s Vineyard Airport in West Tisbury, Massachusetts. The 79-year-old male pilot suffered the emergency during the plane’s final approach, Massachusetts State Police said.

State police said the crash “resulted in a hard landing outside the runway that caused the aircraft’s left wing to break in half”.

NBC Boston reported that the plane landed on its belly with no landing gear and the pilot needed to be extricated from the wreckage.

Authorities did not name either person on the plane and said both were transported to a hospital.

The pilot was then flown to a Boston hospital in life-threatening condition. The passenger, identified as a 68-year-old woman, was uninjured and released from a local hospital, police said.

The 2006 Piper Meridian aeroplane departed from Westchester County, New York, earlier on Saturday afternoon. The pilot and passenger are Connecticut residents, police said.

The crash is being investigated by state police, National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. An FAA spokesperson said the NTSB is in charge of the investigation.

The aircraft was removed and taken to a secure location at the airport and the crash scene was cleared, state police 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.

- Additional reporting, NZ Herald