Two small planes have collided in mid-air near an airport in Colorado.
The aircraft, which were both in the air around Fort Morgan Municipal Airport, crashed into one another and sent smoke and flames soaring through the sky around 10.40am on Sunday.
One plane caught fire as a result of the collision, while the other was left heavily damaged.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the crash and confirmed two people were on board each aircraft.
‘A Cessna 172 and an Extra Flugzeugbau EA300 collided while both aircraft were attempting to land at Fort Morgan Municipal Airport in Colorado,’ the FAA said.
Morgan County Sheriff David Martin confirmed to Denver 7 that at least one person sustained burns during the crash.
One of the planes caught fire and the other was heavily damage, the sheriff’s office said.
Martin said his deputies are on scene at the airport and going through the badly damaged planes.
The crash forced the airport to close.
The NTSB issued a statement confirming its role in the investigation: ‘NTSB investigating the Aug. 31 midair collision involving a Cessna 172 airplane and an Extra EA 300 airplane near Fort Morgan, Colorado.’
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.
