At least two people are dead after a pair of planes shockingly collided in midair at Arizona’s Marana Airport on Wednesday morning.
Images revealed that one of the planes crashed next to the runway, turning into a pile of debris and ashes, while the other aircraft managed to land safely, as reported by the Associated Press.
A thick plume of black smoke could be seen over the airport and surrounding area shortly after the planes collided at 8:29am local time.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stated that both planes had two people on board during the incident, but the status of the passengers remains unknown.
The NTSB, responsible for investigating the collision, specified that the involved aircraft were a Cessna 172S and a Lancair 360 MK II. The collision occurred while the planes were flying “upwind of runway 12,” one of the runways at the local airport.
The FAA said that Marana Regional Airport, which is located outside Tucson, is an uncontrolled airfield, meaning it does not have an operating air traffic control tower.
The collision comes just days after a Delta plane crash landed in Toronto and flipped upside down, causing several serious injuries but no deaths.
The repeat crashes are the latest in a string of aviation disasters that have plagued the country in recent weeks, including one of the worst in recent US history when 67 people died in a horror crash over Reagan International Airport last month.
DailyMail.com has contacted Marana Airport and authorities for further details.
Marana Regional Airport serves as a general aviation reliever airport for Tuscon International, which is around 30 miles away.
The airport was closed immediately following the crash.
The airport is home to more than 260 based aircraft and sees upwards of 90,000 takeoffs and landings every year, according to its website.
Although it does not have an air traffic control tower, the airport is set to construct one by 2027.
The NTSB is already involved in several other investigations following a string of crashes over US skies.
The most recent came just two days ago, when a Delta passenger jet crash landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Shocking footage showed the jet burst into flames and flip over on an icy runway, which left 80 passengers hanging upside down. Although several were injured, no one died in the crash.
Just a week before the Toronto crash, a private jet owned by Motley Crue singer Vince Neil veered off a runway at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona and crashed into another plane.
The pilot in that incident tragically lost their life, while the rocker’s girlfriend was hospitalized.
The crash was preceded by another aviation disaster when a small plane carrying 10 people vanished off flight radars off the coast of Alaska on February 7.
The aircraft was later discovered crash-landed 34 miles southeast of its intended destination of Nome, Alaska, with all 10 people aboard found dead inside.
On January 31, an air ambulance carrying six people fell from the skies over Pennsylvania and crashed into a residential area.
The crash resulted in the death of all six on board and a seventh on the ground. The deceased included a young girl who had just received life-saving surgery and was on her way home to Tijuana, Mexico.
Although crashes involving small aircraft are not uncommon, with over 1,000 reported in the US alone in 2023, the repeat accidents have sparked panic among the nation’s flying community.
Public scrutiny has particularly fallen on the aviation industry as these crashes were preceded by one of the worst aviation disasters in modern American history on January 29.
In another mid-air collision, the horror incident saw an American Airlines flight strike an Army Black Hawk helicopter over Reagan International Airport, killing 67 people as all passengers on the airliner and the helicopter lost their lives.
