One dead after planes collide mid-air outside Los Angeles

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Two planes collided mid-air north of Los Angeles on Sunday, leaving one person dead, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

The department responded at 1:20 p.m. to two downed planes in the city of Lancaster.

One pilot was pronounced dead on arrival, and the other reported no injuries, according to officials.

One of the planes involved was a single-engine Cessna aircraft, according to the department.

One of the damaged aircraft landed on Avenue G near 60th Street East, and the other landed near Avenue F and 46th Street East, approximately two miles away, officials told KTLA.

The California Highway Patrol, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and fire department are on the scene investigating the incident.

The name of the person killed has not been released.

An NBC Los Angeles image from the scene of the crash shows what appears to be a vintage military aircraft with a red star on its tail.

“A single-engine Nanchang CJ-6 and single-engine Yakovlev Yak-52 collided in mid-air near Lancaster, California, around 1 p.m. local time on Sunday, Sept. 22,” the Federal Aviation Administration wrote in a statement. “Only the pilots were on board the aircraft. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate.”

Both aircraft are vintage planes that were used for training by the Chinese and Russian militaries, respectively.