Two people were killed Wednesday morning in a midair crash involving two small planes near Marana Regional Airport, authorities say.
Two people were aboard each of two fixed-wing single engine planes — a Lancair and a Cessna 172 — when they collided about 8:25 a.m. near the small airport northwest of Tucson on West Avra Valley Road, west of Interstate-10, federal authorities say.
The Associated Press reported that one plane landed uneventfully and the other hit the ground near a runway and caught fire. The news agency cited the National Transportation Safety Board, that said it was based on based on preliminary information before its investigators had arrived.
The Marana Police Department confirmed the two deaths after responding to the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation.
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This image taken from a video shows plane debris at Marana Regional Airport after a deadly mid-air collision Wednesday morning involving two small planes.
The airport in Marana has two intersecting runways but operates without an air traffic control tower.
A multimillion-dollar project was underway to build a tower but delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back construction. Tens of thousands of flights arrive and depart from the airport annually, according to the Associated Press.
Last week in Arizona, one of two pilots died on a private jet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil after the aircraft Scottsdale and hit a business jet.
Four have occurred in North America in the last month. The most recent involved while landing in Toronto and the deadly crash of a commuter plane in Alaska.
In late January, 67 people were killed in a midair collision in Washington, D.C., involving an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter, marking the United States’ deadliest aviation disaster since 2001. Just a day later, a with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood on Jan. 31, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes. That crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured 19 others.
Associated Press reporters Morgan Lee and Sejal Govindarao contributed to this report.