Texas Plane Crash: 3 Dead As Two Small Aircraft Collide Midair Near McKinney

Three people were killed after two small aircraft collided midair near McKinney, Texas on Saturday evening.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the collision occurred soon after 5:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. EST) near Aero Country Airport, a private airport about 35 miles north of Dallas.

“They were making a turn and one of the planes slid into the other,” witness Rodney Livermore told NBC News. “You heard a loud crash and bang. One of them came straight down. The other one had a little control, but it was coming down. There was no stopping it.”

Witnesses said the tail end of one plane broke off causing the aircraft to spiral to the ground while the other plane crashed into a storage facility at Custer Road and Virginia Parkway.

The small airport does not have an air traffic control tower and pilots are supposed to announce landings and takeoffs via radio, according to FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford. He told the Associated Press “both aircraft were flying under Visual Flight Rules and were not in contact with air traffic control at the time of the collision.”

No details about those killed in the collision were immediately provided and the cause of the collision is under investigation.

In a statement late Saturday, McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller said, “We are devastated over the tragic plane crash that happened this evening near Aero Country Airport. Our condolences go out to the families of those who were involved and we will keep them in our thoughts and prayers in the coming days.”

Dallas News cited government records showing two fatalities have been reported at Aero Country since it opened — one in 1997 when a pilot died of burns after losing control of his plane, and the other in 1983 when a passenger died of a head injury after exiting the plane and walking into the arc of a propeller.