PLUM ISLAND — No one was injured Friday afternoon after a single-engine Piper Warrior airplane left a Plum Island Airport runway and came to a stop in a nearby patch of plants, according to local police.
Firefighters and police officers rushed to the airport around 4:55 p.m. upon receiving the call. The airplane came to rest on its side and off the runway after clipping its wing on a fence while landing. The two occupants told officials they were practicing emergency landings when they came in to the runway too low.
Firefighters found approximately six gallons of fuel that leaked from the airplane. The fuel was contained and cleaned up. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection was notified of the fuel leak.
The airport was closed for the night. The Federal Aviation Administration was notified of the incident, according to officials.
The crash is the first at the small municipal airport since August, 2022, when a pilot landed his 1949 Nation single piston airplane on its nose.
Plum Island Airport has two runways, 10/28, an 2,105-foot asphalt runway, and 14/32, a 2,300-foot stretch of grass.