Two Dead After Planes Collide at Southern Arizona Airport
The mid-air collision occurred near an airport without an operating air traffic control tower.
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Two people have died in a mid-air collision between two small single-engine planes at a local Arizona airport on Wednesday morning.
The crash between the two fixed-wing planes occurred at the Marana Regional Airport about 21 miles northwest of Tucson, Arizona, according to the Marana Police Department, which said the reason for the crash was still being investigated.
Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are on the scene and are expected to provide more details.
“NTSB is investigating a mid-air collision between Cessna 172S and Lancair 360 MK II near Marana, Arizona,” the agency said in a post on X.
The planes, each with two passengers, collided right before 8:30 a.m. local time according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The identities of the victims has not been disclosed.
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Marana Regional Airport is an uncontrolled field without an operating air traffic control tower. In such cases, pilots usually use a common traffic advisory frequency to announce their position to others in the airport’s vicinity.
Pilots are expected to comply with all federal aviation regulations, such as minimum visibility, minimum safe altitudes, and right-of-way rules, with the pilot-in-command responsible for maintaining a safe separation from other aircrafts.
The Wednesday collision comes after numerous aircraft accidents in the past few months, including the Delta Air Lines crash landing on Monday, an air ambulance crash in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, and the midair collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter which killed 67 passengers.
Following the Jan. 29 accident in Washington D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport—which was the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster since 2001—President Donald Trump’s administration has promised to review and update air traffic control systems across the country.
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