Two planes collide midair at California airport, officials say. Three are dead
Three people were killed when two planes collided midair over a California airport, federal officials said.
A single-engine Cessna 152 and a twin-engine Cessna 340 crashed as they were preparing to land at the Watsonville Municipal Airport around 3 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 18, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“I didn’t see the other plane until they hit each other, but it literally appeared as if the faster plane went right through the smaller plane, almost like a missile hitting another plane,” Cam Primavera, a witness of the crash, told Lookout Santa Cruz. “It just continued on, and the smaller plane unfortunately just came apart and went sort of end over end.”
One passenger was in the single-engine plane and two people were in the twin-engine plane, federal officials said.
All passengers were killed, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said. Their identities have not been released yet.
No other injuries were reported.
The municipal airport does not have a control tower, but pilots can communicate through a common traffic advisory frequency, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Fabian Salazar said during an Aug. 19 live update recorded by KSBW.
The NTSB will also produce a preliminary report of the gathered evidence within 14 days, then a final report will be released within 12 to 24 months, Salazar said.
“We are grieving tonight from this unexpected and sudden loss,” City of Watsonville Mayor Ari Parker said in a Facebook post. “I want to express my deepest and most heartfelt condolences.”
Anyone who witnessed the crash is asked to email witness@NTSB.gov.
Watsonville is about 50 miles south of San Jose.
This story was originally published August 19, 2022 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Two planes collide midair at California airport, officials say. Three are dead."
