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.
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.
The plane made a hard landing, causing a wing strut — a support brace that attaches to the fuselage — to snap, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident.
The plane, which left from East Hampton, was heading to the seaplane base Skyport at East 23rd Street 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.
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.
“The pilot did a great job on making sure it didn’t turn over,” he said.
“He pulled a Sully on that one,” he added, referring to the pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III, who landed a commercial jet in the Hudson River in 2009, saving all 155 people on board. “I was so impressed the pilot didn’t let it sink.”
Mr. Hurlburt said he saw least three people who were aboard climb onto one of the plane’s floats, opposite the submerged wing. He watched, he said, as the wing appeared to sink deeper into the water.
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.
“They all responded within minutes — very, very quickly,” he said.
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 and FlightAware, a plane-tracking website.
It is not uncommon for aircraft to crash in New York waters. Last month, a small plane crashed into the East River near the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens. No injuries were reported at the time.
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