A seaplane flying from the Hamptons with eight people aboard crashed into the East River on Sunday afternoon near the Manhattan waterfront, according to Fire Department officials and the police.<\/p>\n
The pilot, a crew member and six passengers were taken out of the plane by Fire Department units, the officials said. Two of them suffered minor injuries but refused medical attention, the officials said.<\/p>\n
The plane made a hard landing, causing a wing strut \u2014 a support brace that attaches to the fuselage \u2014 to snap, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident<\/a>.<\/p>\n The plane, which left from East Hampton, was heading to the seaplane base Skyport at East 23rd Street<\/a> and Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive around noon when it struck a wave while landing, causing the aircraft to partially capsize, fire officials and the police said. Fire Department boats towed the plane back to a dock.<\/p>\n Marcus Hurlburt, 39, said he was running along the East River about a block away, near East 22nd Street, when he saw the plane approach the landing zone and clip the water with its left wing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pilot did a great job on making sure it didn\u2019t turn over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe pulled a Sully on that one,\u201d he added, referring to the pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III, who landed a commercial jet in the Hudson River<\/a> in 2009, saving all 155 people on board. \u201cI was so impressed the pilot didn\u2019t let it sink.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Hurlburt said he saw least three people who were aboard climb onto one of the plane\u2019s floats, opposite the submerged wing. He watched, he said, as the wing appeared to sink deeper into the water.<\/p>\n But he said Police Department and Fire Department boats, as well as another seaplane that had already landed in the water, were quick to respond and transport the passengers back to shore.<\/p>\n \u201cThey all responded within minutes \u2014 very, very quickly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The owner of the 10-seat plane, a Kodiak 100, requested that their identity not appear in public databases, and its flight routes are not publicly available, according to its F.A.A. registration profile<\/a> and FlightAware, a plane-tracking website<\/a>.<\/p>\n