A small plane on approach to a Pennsylvania airport landed instead in a shallow section of the Susquehanna River a few miles from the Three Mile Island nuclear power station.

Susquehanna Regional Airport Authority executive director Tim Edwards said the pilot and the single-engine plane's lone passenger were taken to a hospital for treatment. The Federal Aviation Administration says the two onboard exited the Piper PA-46 into a wing.

Edwards says the crash occurred Friday evening, about 2 miles (3 kilometres) upstream from the Three Mile Island station. The plane was approaching Harrisburg International Airport

He says the plane lost engine power somehow.

Edwards doesn't know where the plane was coming from.

Hours afterwards, the plane remained in the water, about 200 feet (60 meters) from shore.