Two people are dead after a collision between two small airplanes in Arizona on Wednesday.
Huge plumes of smoke were visible after the midair collision around 8:30 a.m. near Marana Regional Airport, north of Tucson.
The airport is an uncontrolled airfield, meaning there is no air traffic control tower and pilots must instead communicate with each other using a common radio frequency.
“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,” said Airport Superintendent Galen Beem. “This is an unprecedented event, and we are grateful for the swift response from the Marana Police Department and Northwest Fire District.”
The two fixed-wing, single-engine planes collided while upwind of runway 12, according to a preliminary investigation. There were two people on board each of the planes, a Lancair 360 MK II and Cessna 172S.
The Cessna landed safely, but the Lancair crashed, causing a fire.
"The Cessna landed uneventfully; the Lancair impacted terrain near runway 3 and a post-impact fire ensued," according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The two victims haven't been identified. The two people on the Cessna were unharmed, said AeroGuard, a flight training school that operates the plane.
"We are deeply saddened by the two fatalities from this tragic accident, and our thoughts and prayers are with their families and loved ones during this difficult time," the company told the AP.
The deadly incident comes after several high-profile aviation accidents that have caused concern since January, beginning with a deadly mid-air collision in Washington D.C. that killed all 67 people onboard an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight.
Days later, a medical transport helicopter crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood, killing seven people and setting homes on fire.
Two private jets, one of them owned by Motley Crue singer Vince Neil, collided at Scottsdale Airport last week, killing one of Neil's pilots.
Then, after a Delta airlines flight flipped upside down while landing in Toronto on Monday, with all 80 people surviving, Democrats blamed President Trump's cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for a perceived downgrade in aviation safety.
Marana airport was scheduled to get its own air traffic tower by the end of 2024, but the FAA project was delayed during the COVID pandemic. Most airports in the U.S. do not have control towers, and small plane crashes are more common than commercial crashes.
