Photo: Google Earth
Four people were killed after two small planes collided while flying over North Las Vegas Airport on Sunday (July 17), the Federal Aviation Administration announced via NBC News.
The FAA confirmed both of the single-engine aircrafts were carrying two people on board at the time of the accident.
A Piper PA-46 was preparing to land when it collided with a Cessna 172, according to Eva Lee Ngai, a spokesperson for the FAA, in a statement obtained by NBC News.
"The Piper crashed into in a field east of Runway 30-Right and the Cessna fell into a water retention pond," Ngai said.
The North Las Vegas Police Department received a report of the crash at around 12:04 p.m., according to Officer Alexander Cuevas via NBC News.
The FAA said the planes were following a "traffic pattern" associated with the airport, which is run by the local Clark County, Nevada government, art the time of the collision.
Authorities believe that none of the first responders nor anyone else on the ground at the time was killed or injured in relation to the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board plans to aid the FAA in its ongoing investigation into the crash, NBC News reports.
Midair collisions between aircrafts are extremely rare, but have taken place in the past.
One of the worst midair collisions involved a Cessna 172 crashing into a passenger jetliner above the North Park area of San Diego, which resulted in the deaths of 137 people on the two planes, s well as seven people on the ground.