logo
Small planes crash in midair over Arizona airport, killing 2: What we know

Small planes crash in midair over Arizona airport, killing 2: What we know

Yahoo20-02-2025

Two people were killed Wednesday morning when two small airplanes crashed in midair at a regional airport in southern Arizona – the latest in a series of North American aviation disasters in recent weeks.
The crash, which occurred at the Marana Regional Airport, about 21 miles northwest of Tucson, is also the second fatal aviation mishap this month in Arizona.
Details about the victims and the circumstances that preceded the crash remained slim Thursday morning, nearly 24 hours later.
Here's everything to know so far:
Plane crashes 2025: How many have plane crashes have there been in 2025? How many people have died?
The crash involved two fixed-wing, single-engine aircraft, Vincent Rizzi, a Marana Police Department sergeant, told the Arizona Republic, a USA TODAY Network publication.
One of the airplanes has been identified as a Cessna 172S and the other as a Lancair 360 MK II.
The collision occurred around 8:30 a.m. over a runway at the Marana Regional Airport. While the Cessna landed safely, the Lancair crashed near another runway, sparking a fire that sent plumes of smoke into the air, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a written statement to the Republic.
Marana Airport Superintendent Galen Beem described the crash as "an unprecedented event" in a statement.
'On behalf of the Town of Marana and the Marana Regional Airport, our hearts go out to all the individuals and families impacted by this event,' Beem said in a written statement shared in a news release from the Marana police.
The airport remained closed as of Wednesday afternoon, police said in the latest post on social media.
Two people were on board each aircraft, the Marana town government posted on Facebook.
Rizzi told the Republic that the two aboard the Cessna that landed safely were not severely injured, meaning both those on the Lancair were killed in the crash.
Authorities had not publicly identified any of the victims in the crash as of Thursday morning.
The Marana Regional Airport, which is mostly used for leisure flights, is located in a rural area surrounded by farm fields and desert brush.
The airport is also home to two flight schools.
The two aircraft involved in the fatal crash were not among the 259 aircraft based at the airport, Vic Hathaway, communications manager for the town of Marana, told the Republic.
The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed on social media site X it was investigating the crash. Marana officials indicated Wednesday that further information would come from the NTSB.
The FAA released a statement to USA TODAY confirming details about the crash. USA TODAY left a message Thursday morning with the NTSB seeking further information.
The regional airport is what's known as an "uncontrolled field," meaning it does not have an air traffic control tower, according to the FAA.
At uncontrolled airports, pilots use a common traffic advisory frequency to regularly announce their position to other pilots who are in the airport vicinity, the agency said. Pilots operating in uncontrolled fields also must still comply with all FAA regulations, including maintaining visibility and safe altitudes.
While a crewed tower was supposed to be in place by the end of 2024 to accommodate an increase in traffic and improve safety, its construction was delayed, Hathaway told the Republic. That delay was mostly related to supply chain issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, she added.
Although experts have said air travel remains extremely safe, the crash is at least the sixth major aviation disaster of 2025 in North America, USA TODAY reported.
That includes a high-profile deadly crash in Washington DC on Jan. 29 in which a military Black Hawk helicopter collided in midair with an American Airlines regional jet, killing 67 people near Ronald Reagan National Airport. It was the first fatal crash of a U.S. airliner in nearly 16 years.
Just days after the crash near Washington, D.C., a medical jet carrying a child patient crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood. Seven people died, including all six on board the aircraft and another in a car on the ground.
The Arizona crash also comes days after 18 people were injured when a Delta Airlines regional jet crash landed upside down Monday in Toronto.
Another 10 people were killed earlier this month when a small plane crashed in Alaska after experiencing a rapid loss of altitude and speed. The aircraft, heading from the village of Unalakleet to the town of Nome, was initially reported missing before it was later recovered.
The crash is also the second fatal aviation incident this month in Arizona after one person was killed Feb. 10 when two private jets collided on a runway at Scottsdale Airport.
Another four people were injured when a Learjet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil veered off the runway and hit a parked Gulfstream jet at the small municipal airport, officials said. While the investigation revealed that it appeared the plane's landing gear had failed, no official cause of the crash had been announced.
Neil was not among the two passengers and two pilots on board the Learjet during the crash. One person was aboard the other Gulfstream jet.
Contributing: Christopher Cann, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2 killed in Arizona after planes collide in midair: What we know

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Small plane crashes into ocean off San Diego with 6 people aboard
Small plane crashes into ocean off San Diego with 6 people aboard

Yahoo

time38 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Small plane crashes into ocean off San Diego with 6 people aboard

Authorities are investigating after a small plane crashed into the ocean 5 miles (8 kilometers) off the coast near San Diego with six people aboard. U.S. Coast Guard officials said a debris field was discovered near Point Loma Sunday afternoon and began searching for the wreckage in an area where the water is about 200 feet (61 meters) deep. The Federal Aviation Administration said the twin-engine Cessna 414 crashed around 12:30 p.m. Sunday not long after it took off. Flight tracking website, showed that the plane was bound for Phoenix. The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA confirmed they are investigating the crash.

After an American Airlines plane caught fire, the National Transportation Safety Board finds engine parts installed backward
After an American Airlines plane caught fire, the National Transportation Safety Board finds engine parts installed backward

Yahoo

time3 days ago

  • Yahoo

After an American Airlines plane caught fire, the National Transportation Safety Board finds engine parts installed backward

On March 13, an American Airlines flight was diverted from its destination after the flight crew reported engine vibrations, and its engine caught fire once it landed. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a report this week the engine leaked fuel because of loose and improperly installed parts. Despite numerous reported aviation safety incidents, air travel is safer than it was decades ago, experts say. An American Airlines engine that burst into flames after its aircraft was diverted in March was found to have fuel leaks and improperly installed parts, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report released Thursday. The NTSB identified a damaged fan blade on the right side of the two-engine jet, as well as a loose airflow control component that was installed backward and a loose rod end that caused fuel to leak from the fitting. The report did not give a reason for the fire, as the NTSB has not yet finished its investigation on the incident. The purpose of the document is to find the root cause of the incident, not assign blame for it. On March 13, Flight 1006 en route from the Colorado Springs Airport to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport diverted to Denver International Airport after the flight crew reported engine vibrations. The Boeing 737-823 aircraft caught fire while taxiing to the gate, incurring 'substantial damage,' according to the report. 'They thought they had what we would call the degraded engine,' Cary Grant, an associate professor of aeronautical science at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, told Fortune. 'It wasn't performing. It wasn't a failed engine, but it wasn't providing all the thrust and capability that it could produce.' The jet was carrying two flight crew members, four cabin crew members, and 172 passengers, 12 of whom were hospitalized for minor injuries. According to the report, gate ramp personnel extinguished the fire on the right side of the plane one minute after it began. Passengers evacuated the aircraft onto the left overwing and a slide from the jet's right door. NTSB's photos of the evacuated aircraft show burn marks and damage from the jet's right wing, main landing gear, and landing gear wheel well. 'The safety of our customers and team members is our top priority, and we are cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board in its investigation of American Airlines flight 1006,' an American Airlines spokesperson told Fortune in a statement. The March flight diversion was one of several highly scrutinized aviation safety incidents early in the year. In January, an American Airlines jet collided with an Army helicopter in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people. Later that month, a small, private plane crashed in Northeast Philadelphia, resulting in multiple deaths. Most recently, Newark Liberty International Airport experienced a series of radio outages, which resulted in a slew of flight delays and cancellations. These incidents can have financial repercussions for airlines. American Airlines reported in its first-quarter earnings challenges to resuscitate its corporate travel business as a result of 'economic uncertainty that pressured domestic leisure demand and the tragic accident of American Eagle Flight 5342,' referring to the January incident. Despite the multiple safety blunders, aviation experts maintain it is still safe to fly. Boeing—though it has struggled in the past couple of years with safety concerns—reported a significant decline in fatalities in 2024, saying there has been a 40% decline in total accident rates and 65% decline in fatal accident rates in the past 20 years, while the number of flights has increased 20% in that same time period. Grant said the engine issues with Flight 1006 are rare, speaking to the dependability of its CFM56-7B engine. 'The engine is extremely reliable,' he said. 'The fact that we don't see situations like this occurring frequently is testament to the reliability of the motors. It's an extremely reliable part.' He maintains the flight crew did what was 'reasonably expected' of them, given the information they had at the time—especially since they had to evacuate passengers from the jet when it was taxiing at a gate, a situation that usually necessitates deplaning procedures. Combined with statistics that aviation accidents have actually decreased, the rarity of the engine degradation points to the continued security of air travel, Grant said. 'If we go back and look from the '50s on to where we're at today, the accident trend is very, very small compared to the hundreds of thousands, millions of hours of flight time that are being flown every year,' he said. 'The data does not support that air travel is riskier. It's actually just the opposite.' This story was originally featured on

NTSB report says plane that caught fire had incorrectly installed parts
NTSB report says plane that caught fire had incorrectly installed parts

Yahoo

time3 days ago

  • Yahoo

NTSB report says plane that caught fire had incorrectly installed parts

A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board found indications maintenance errors could be at fault for an American Airlines plane that caught fire after making an emergency landing at Denver International Airport in March. Investigators say airport cameras captured video showing a trail of fluid following the plane as it taxied after diverting to Denver due to an engine issue. When investigators looked at the plane's engine, they discovered some parts were loose and appeared to be installed incorrectly, with one "allowing fuel to leak from the fitting." "The way this is looking is that there was a maintenance issue that led to this fire and we've gotta figure out where that error occurred so we can keep that error from happening again," said former NTSB chair Robert Sumwalt, CBS News transportation safety analyst. Passengers escape plane The NTSB says the fire was put out in less than a minute by ground crews in Denver. The report describes the chaos in the cabin after passengers, who were flying to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, saw flames under the engine. "Everyone was screaming, 'There's a fire. There's a fire,'" Helen Prager, who was on the plane, recalled. "Literally at the gate and I was screaming, 'Get the doors open.'" As that was happening, the NTSB said a flight attendant called the pilots, but "did not get an answer." Another flight attendant knocked on the cockpit door to alert the pilots of the fire outside and the smoke inside. Some of the 172 passengers evacuated to the wing, but an escape slide jammed, preventing the use of the cabin doors. "When it did not deploy properly and it jammed the door, that's a problem," Sumwalt said. "So the NTSB is going to want to drill down into that. … Did it come from the factory that way, or was it a maintenance problem?" Twelve people were taken to a hospital with minor injuries following the fire, officials said following the incident. The plane took off from Colorado Springs. In a statement, American Airlines told CBS News, "The safety of our customers and team members is our top priority and we are cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board in its investigation." Aviation incidents in 2025 The plane fire in Denver is one in a string of aviation incidents so far this year. In January, a midair collision where a Blackhawk helicopter struck an American Airlines plane near Reagan National Airport killed all 64 people on board the regional jet and the three soldiers in the helicopter. The flight was coming from Wichita, Kansas. A Delta Air Lines regional jet crashed and flipped upside down during its landing at Toronto International Airport in February. The incident left 21 people injured, but all 80 on board, including the crew, were able to escape the wreckage. Members of Congress were on a plane sitting on the tarmac at Reagan National Airport in April when it was clipped by another aircraft. No injuries were reported in the incident. Meanwhile, the FAA is investigating outages that have happened at the Philadelphia air traffic control center, which is responsible for operating flights out of Newark airport. Multiple outages have occurred since April. Last month, the Trump administration announced plans to overhaul the system. Despite high-profile incidents this year, a CBS News analysis based on NTSB and Bureau of Travel Statistics data shows .02% of domestic flights were involved in accidents in 2024. Musk alleges Trump's name appeared in Epstein files as feud escalates What to know about President Trump's travel ban on nationals from 12 countries Trump says he's disappointed by Musk criticism of budget bill, Musk says he got Trump elected

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store