Los Angeles: At least two people were confirmed dead after two small planes collided midair at the Marana Regional Airport in the US state of Arizona, officials said.
A Cessna 172S and Lancair 360 MK II collided while upwind of runway 12 on Wednesday morning, according to preliminary information from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The planes that collided were identified as a Cessna 172S and a Lancair 360 MK II, both fixed-wing, single-engine aircraft, the NTSB said in a statement on X.
The NTSB, which is leading the investigation into the incident, said that based on preliminary information, the aircraft “collided while upwind of runway 12”, which is one of two runways at the airport, Xinhua news agency reported.
Both planes were smaller fixed-wing single-engine planes, according to the Marana Police Department.
The Marana Police Department is currently on scene at the airport.
The NTSB added that the Cessna “landed uneventfully” while the Lancair “impacted terrain near runway 3 and a post-impact fire ensued”.
No information about the victims was provided.
The deadly collision comes just weeks after a helicopter collided with an American Airlines passenger plane in Washington DC, killing all 64 passengers and three crew members.
The same week, a small medical transport plane crashed into several buildings in the US city of Philadelphia, killing all six people on board and at least one other person on the ground.
On Monday, a Delta Air Lines flight in Toronto skidded along the runway in flames before flipping over and coming to a dramatic halt upside down. All 80 people on board survived.
on February 6, a small plane carrying 10 people crashed in Alaska after losing speed and altitude and vanishing from the radar. The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, heading from the village of Unalakleet to the town of Nome, was recovered. No one survived, the Alaska Department of Public Safety confirmed.
On February 10, two private jets collided at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, killing one person and injuring four.
The flurry of crashes in the US was then followed by one in Canada on Monday. A Delta Air Lines regional jet carrying 80 people crashed and flipped at Toronto Pearson International Airport, leaving nearly two dozen injured but no deaths.
The latest crash comes as the US aviation sector on Wednesday called on Congress for emergency funding for air traffic control technology and staffing.
(IANS)
