Two Dead After Small Planes Collide Mid-air Near Marana Airport In Arizona, Officials Say

Two people are dead after a mid-air collision between two small planes Wednesday morning at a regional airport in southern Arizona.

According to a post from the Marana Police Department, the crash between two fixed-wing, single-engine planes happened at the Marana Regional Airport, about 21 miles northwest of Tucson, Arizona.

Police say details were limited, as of late Wednesday morning, with both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board expected to respond.

“NTSB is investigating a mid-air collision between Cessna 172S and Lancair 360 MK II near Marana, Arizona,” the agency said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The latest crash comes amid a tense time in aviation after crashes in the United States and Canada.

On Jan. 29, a crash between a regional American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter left 67 people dead near the Ronald Reagan International Airport in the Washington, D.C. area. 

Only two days later, in Philadelphia, a medical transport plane crashed in a residential area of northeast Philadelphia, leaving six people on the plane and one person on the ground dead.

Then on Feb. 6, a small plane carrying 10 people crashed in Alaska after losing speed and altitude and vanishing from the radar. The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, heading from the village of Unalakleet to the town of Nome, was recovered. No one survived, the Alaska Department of Public Safety confirmed.

On Feb. 10 two private jets collided at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, killing one person and injuring four.

The flurry of crashes in the United States was then followed by one in Canada on Monday. A Delta Air Lines regional jet carrying 80 people crashed and flipped at Toronto Pearson International Airport, leaving nearly two dozen injured but no deaths.

Contributing: Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.