‘Amazing’ escape for pilots, passenger after plane nearly ripped in half in mid-air crash
- Two aircraft collided near Denver, but managed to land safely despite the damage
- One pilot used a parachute to slow his plane’s descent, while the other requested an emergency landing without knowing how badly his aircraft was damaged
The pilot of an aeroplane that collided with another mid-air near Denver requested emergency landing for engine failure, not knowing that his plane was nearly ripped in half, according to air traffic control audio. Miraculously, both planes landed and no one was hurt, officials said.
The planes were getting ready to land at a small regional airport in a Denver suburb on Wednesday when they collided, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board and South Metro Fire Rescue.
The pilot that requested emergency landing was the only person aboard a twin-engined Fairchild Metroliner that landed at Centennial Airport despite major damage to its tail section. The plane is owned by a Colorado-based Key Lime Air, which operates cargo aircraft.
“Looks like the right engine failed so I’m gonna continue my landing here,” the pilot said in an audio clip with air traffic control.
The second plane, a single-engine 2016 Cirrus SR22, was rented by Independence Aviation, the company said in a statement. Its pilot successfully deployed an airframe parachute system designed by Cirrus Aircraft to slow the craft’s descent after a collision.
The Cirrus plane had a pilot and one passenger on board when the pilot deployed a red-and-white parachute and drifted down to a safe landing in a field near homes in Cherry Creek State Park, Arapahoe County sheriff’s Deputy John Bartmann said.
“Every one of these pilots needs to go buy a lottery ticket right now,” Bartmann said. “I don’t remember anything like this – especially everybody walking away. I mean that’s the amazing part of this.”
The National Transportation Safety Board has four people investigating the accident, the federal agency said in a statement.
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“We are working to understand how and why these planes collided,” said John Brannen, lead NTSB investigator for the accident. “It is so fortunate that no one was injured in this collision.”
As of Thursday, Brannen had interviewed both pilots and an NTSB air traffic control specialist had listened to recordings from air traffic control. They plan to interview the air traffic controllers who worked with both pilots, according to the statement. NTSB said it will publish a preliminary report in the next two weeks but it expects the entire investigation to take 12 to 18 months.
The Independence-operated Cirrus had departed Centennial at 9.21am Wednesday, flew northward near Fort Collins and was returning to Centennial when the collision occurred.
The Key Lime Air cargo flight took off from Salida, a city more than 100 miles (161km) southwest of Denver, at 9.56am and landed at Centennial at 10.25am.
June Cvelbar told the KUSA TV station that she witnessed the collision while walking in a state park.
“I saw two planes in the sky. I saw a larger green plane, which I thought was a tow plane, along with what I thought was a glider being towed by it. I heard a noise but didn’t realise that the two planes had collided,” she told KUSA in an email.
Shelly Whitehead told KCNC-TV that she was in her kitchen when she heard a loud bang that sounded like a firecracker. She ran out onto her patio and saw the plane that deployed the parachute coming down in the field behind her house.
“I thought, ‘Is it somebody just jumping out of a plane?’ And then I realised the parachute was attached to a plane,” she said. “I thought for sure they weren’t going to make it out of there.”
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Both Key Lime Air, a passenger and cargo charter company, and Independence Aviation, a flight school and aircraft rental firm that owns the Cirrus aeroplane, are based outside Centennial Airport, one of the busiest general aviation airports in Colorado. Authorities did not immediately identify the people who were in the planes.
“At this time, we are allowing the NTSB and FAA to conduct their investigation,” said a statement issued by Derek Severns of the Cirrus Platinum Training Centre, a pilot training centre.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that it was sending staff to investigate. Key Lime Air will cooperate with the investigation, the company said in a statement.
Federal Aviation Administration records show aircraft operated by Key Lime Air have been involved in three fatal crashes. In 2016, a Key Lime Air charter plane on a nighttime flight from Panama City, Florida, to Albany, Georgia, crashed after possibly breaking up in mid-air as the lone pilot on board tried to navigate severe weather near Camilla, Georgia.
In 2001, a Key Lime Air flight crashed about 30 miles (48km) off the southern Colorado town of Pagosa Springs, killing two people on board. In 2000, two pilots aboard a Key Lime Air Piper were killed after crashing near Kiowa, Colorado, southeast of Denver.
