Five dead after planes collide mid-air in US

Five people died when two private planes flying about a mile from an airport collided, raining debris down on car dealerships below, US authorities have said.

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

The small Cessnas collided yesterday afternoon near the small Corona Municipal airport and a freeway in Riverside County, about 45 miles south-east of Los Angeles, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer.

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 pictures showed that the smashed fuselage of one of the planes landed on top a parked car.

“The smaller aircraft … just disintegrated into pieces, maybe 50 pieces coming down,” eyewitness Jeff Hardin told KABC-TV.

“The other aircraft pretty much stayed intact and started spiralling 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.