5 Killed As Planes Collide in California
Pastor Dale Morgan
5 Killed As Planes Collide in California*
AP
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.
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.