Three Hurt When Plane Lands In Front Yard

Three people were injured Sunday when a single-engine airplane trying to land at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma narrowly missed a residence and crashed on the lawn.

The plane, a Piper Cherokee, had taken off from Bar Harbor, Maine, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The passengers, Matilda Austin, 69, and Worth Austin, 58, of Bellport, N.Y., and the pilot, Paul Potter, 46, of Connecticut, were all listed in critical condition at the State University Medical Center at Stony Brook, said a hospital administrator, Ellen Barohn. Matilda Austin had broken ankles and internal injuries, Barohn said.

No one was at home when the plane crashed in front of 5 Jewel Drive in Holtsville at 2:45 p.m., authorities said. Officer Randy Jaret, a Suffolk County police spokesman, said the plane missed the home “by about a foot.”