World News | Two Planes Collide Midair Above Denver, No One Injured

Denver, May 13 (AP) Two small airplanes collided in midair near Denver, leaving one aircraft nearly ripped in half and forcing the pilot of the other to deploy a parachute attached to the plane to land safely. Remarkably, no one was injured, officials said.

Both planes were getting ready to land at a small regional airport in a Denver suburb on Wednesday when they collided mid-morning, according to the National Transportation Safety Board and South Metro Fire Rescue.

“Every one of these pilots needs to go buy a lottery ticket right now,” Arapahoe County Sheriff's Deputy John Bartmann said. “I don't remember anything like this — especially everybody walking away. I mean that's the amazing part of this.”

The pilot was the only person aboard a twin-engine Fairchild Metroliner that landed at Centennial Airport despite suffering major damage to its tail section. The plane is owned by a Colorado-based company called Key Lime Air that operates cargo aircraft.

A pilot and one passenger were on the other plane, a Cirrus SR22 single-engine plane that unleashed a red and white parachute to float to a safe landing in a field near homes in Cherry Creek State Park, Bartmann said.

It was not immediately known who owned the Cirrus plane, he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a tweet it was sending staff to investigate the incident. Key Lime Air will cooperate with the investigation, the company said in a statement. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)