One person was killed and three others were left injured when two small planes collided in mid-air outside of a Colorado airport.
A Cessna 172 was on its final descent to Fort Morgan Municipal Airport when it was struck mid-air by an Extra Flugzeugbau EA300 at around 10.40am on Sunday, Morgan County Undersheriff Jon Horton told Denver 7.
The impact caused one of the planes to catch fire, sending smoke and flames soaring through the sky, while the other was left heavily damaged.
The unidentified fatal victim had been traveling on the Extra EA 300, the other occupant of which was hospitalized with an unknown extent of injuries, Horton said.
Two others in the Cessna walked away with just minor injuries, he added.
The deadly collision forced the local airport to temporarily close.
Deputies then combed through the badly-damaged planes in the aftermath, Sheriff David Martin said, as the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board announced they would investigate the fatal crash.
The collision comes just days after a Spirit Airways jet appeared to cross closely to a Southwest Airlines plane at over 30,000 feet.
Dramatic photos taken by wildlife photographer Mike Griffin on August 25 showed the two planes flying close together over Jekyll Island in Georgia, and he decided to start snapping pictures after witnessing them apparently careen towards each other.
But according to flight records seen by the Daily Mail, the images taken from the ground may be something of an optical illusion, as the two jets were outside the Federal Aviation Administration’s 1,000ft limit in altitude.
The Southwest flight was cruising at 33,000ft while the Spirit plane was at 35,000ft, flight records showed.
