Two small planes collide mid-air in the US, two dead

According to preliminary information from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), a Cessna 172S and a Lancair 360 MK II collided at 8:28 a.m. near Marana Regional Airport northwest of Tucson. The Marana Police Department confirmed two fatalities.

“On behalf of the Town of Marana and Marana Regional Airport, we extend our deepest condolences to all individuals and families affected by this event,” said airport director Galen Beem. “This is an unprecedented event.”

The Federal Aviation Administration calls the airport an “uncontrolled field,” with no active air traffic control tower. Pilots will typically use the General Traffic Advisory Frequency to communicate their position to other pilots near the airport.

The crash follows a series of recent aviation incidents that began with a mid-air collision on January 29 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that killed 67 people when a military helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet collided.

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Video of the accident (source: X)

Since then, four other aviation incidents have drawn attention to air safety, including a medical plane crash in Philadelphia; a plane crash in Alaska that killed 10 people; a private plane skidded off a runway in Arizona, killing the pilot on board; and, more recently, a Delta Air Lines commercial plane flipped over on the runway as it approached Toronto.

The rise in private aircraft ownership is raising concerns about air crashes in the United States. Smaller planes are statistically more likely to crash. Private planes are subject to different regulations than commercial aircraft, which are less stringent.

The National Air and Space Museum estimates that there are more than 340,000 general aviation aircraft worldwide, and American pilots operate 204,000 of them.

Bui Huy (according to NTSB, NYT, CNN)