Private planes collide in Calif., at least 5 dead as debris rains down on car dealerships

 

 

By The Associated Press

CORONA, Calif. – Two private planes flying about a mile from an airport collided Sunday, killing five people and raining debris down on car dealerships below, authorities said.

Two people were killed from each plane, and the fifth was inside a Chevy dealership that was hit by wreckage, said Wayne Pollack of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The small Cessnas collided at 3:35 p.m. near the small Corona Municipal airport and a freeway in Riverside County, about 45 miles southeast of Los Angeles, FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.

Kenitzer did not immediately know where either plane was headed or whether there were any distress calls.

The Corona airport does not have a staffed control tower, he said.

Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!

  • Catch the latest on University of Illinois news, sports, and more. Delivered every weekday.
  • Stay up to date on all things Illini sports. Delivered every Monday.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Thank you for subscribing!

Television images showed that the smashed fuselage of one of the planes landed atop a parked car.

“The smaller aircraft … just disintegrated into pieces, maybe fifty pieces coming down,” eyewitness Jeff Hardin told KABC-TV. “The other aircraft pretty much stayed intact and started spiraling down.”

Eyewitness Hector Hernandez said he saw bodies falling from the sky.

“One of them crashed into the top of a Ford Mustang, and

another one fell not too far behind that one on the parking lot,” Hernandez told KCBS-TV.