Watsonville, California – Two planes collided in northern California while trying to land at a local airport Thursday, killing at least two of the three passengers, officials said.
The planes crashed at Watsonville Municipal Airport just before 3 p.m., according to a tweet from Watsonville. The city-owned airport does not have a control tower to guide the landing and take-off of aircraft.
There were two people aboard the twin-engine Cessna 340 and the pilot only aboard the single-engine Cessna 152 during the crash, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Officials say several deaths have been reported, but it was not immediately clear if anyone survived.
The FAA said in a statement that the pilots were on their final route to the airport before the collision. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, which did not immediately have additional details, are investigating the accident.
No one on the ground was hurt. According to its website, the airport has four runways and houses more than 300 aircraft. It handles more than 55,000 operations annually, often used in recreational aircraft and agribusiness.
Watsonville, near Monterey Bay, is located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of San Francisco.
Pictures and videos posted on social media showed the wreckage of a small plane in a grass field next to the airport. One of the pictures showed a plume of smoke rising in a street near the airport.
A photo from Watsonville showed damage to a small building at the airport with firefighters on the scene.
A witness told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that the planes were about 200 feet (61 meters) high when they crashed.
Frankie Herrera was driving through the airport when he saw the twin-engine plane veered to the right and hit the wing of the smaller plane, which “just fell and crashed” near the edge of the airport and not far from the homes, he told the newspaper.
Herrera said the twin-engine plane continued to fly but was “struggling,” then saw the flames on the other side of the airport.
The manager of Watsonville Municipal Airport was unavailable for a telephone interview in the hours following the accident. The airport accounts for about 40% of all general aviation activity in the Monterey Bay area, according to the City of Watsonville website.
The Watsonville Police Department referred the calls to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, where the dispatcher had no information.
Two other pilots were injured in a plane crash elsewhere in California on Thursday.
A 65-year-old San Diego man was seriously injured but not life-threatening when his single-engine plane crashed into a street near a busy overpass on the highway in El Cajon, authorities said.
The plane reportedly hit an SUV but no one was hurt on the ground in the city about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of downtown San Diego.
Later, a pilot of a lightweight aircraft was seriously injured when it crashed upside down into a building at Camarillo Airport in Ventura County, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) from downtown Los Angeles.
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