Four people dead after two planes collide in midair near Las Vegas
The collision occurred while the planes were preparing to land at North Las Vegas Airport.
KATHMANDU: Four people have died after two small planes collided in midair near Las Vegas, officials said.
The collision, which occurred on Sunday around noon local time, happened while the planes were preparing to land at parallel runways at North Las Vegas Airport, a spokesman at the National Transportation Safety Board said.
All people aboard both planes died in the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The collision involved two single-engine planes, a Piper PA-46 and a Cessna 172. The Piper crashed into a field east of a runway, and the Cessna fell into a water retention pond, the FAA said.
The FAA and the NTSB are investigating the incident.
There have been at least 85 fatal civil aircraft accidents in the U.S. this year, according to NTSB data, versus 105 fatal aircraft accidents during the same period last year. Most involved small planes and resulted in fewer than five deaths per incident.
