At least two people have died after two small single-engine planes collided midair Wednesday morning at an Arizona airport, officials said.
A Lancair 360 MK II and a Cessna 172S collided at the Marana Regional Airport just before 8:30 a.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The airport is an uncontrolled field, meaning it does not have an operating air traffic control tower. It is located about 21 miles northwest of Tucson.
The Marana Police Department said in a Facebook post that it was on scene. The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation.
Based on preliminary information, the “aircraft collided while upwind of runway 12,” NTSB said in a statement. The Cessna “landed uneventfully” while the Lancair “impacted terrain near runway 3 and a post-impact fire ensued.”
Both aircraft had two passengers each. Further details were not immediately released.
When an airport has an uncontrolled field pilots utilize a common traffic advisory frequency to regularly announce their position to other pilots who are in the airport vicinity. The pilot-in-command is responsible for maintaining safe separation from other aircraft.
Pilots must still comply with all federal aviation regulations, including minimum visibilities, minimum safe altitudes, and right-of-way rules.
The collision follows several other aircraft crashes including a fiery crash-landing at a Toronto airport, a fatal air ambulance crash in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, and the midair collision between an Army helicopter and a commercial airplane. In that incident, all 67 passengers in both aircraft were killed, making it the deadliest U.S. air crash in almost a quarter century.
