CARROLL COUNTY, Ga., Sept. 7 (UPI) — Three people were killed Wednesday when two small airplanes collided over the Georgia countryside west of Atlanta while trying to land, authorities said.
The single-engine planes, a Diamond DA20C1 and a Beech F33A, crashed into each other in the sky over the West Georgia Regional Airport at about 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Atlanta’s CBS 46 reported.
The airport is located in Carroll County about 45 miles west of Atlanta.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
One of the planes was registered to a private citizen and the other to a nearby flight school in Newnan, Ga., CBS 46 reported.
All three dead are adults — two men and a woman, Atlanta’s WXIA-TV reported — but they were not immediately identified.
West Georgia Regional Airport is a “non-controlled” facility, meaning flights in and out of the airport are not monitored by air traffic controllers in a control tower. Instead, the pilots of flights there are responsible for navigating air traffic themselves.
“At non-controlled airports, just because there’s no control tower, it doesn’t mean it’s unsafe. Safety of flying is responsibility of the pilot,” former Delta Air Lines pilot Joe Fagendes told CBS 46.
No one on the ground was hurt.
Video: WSB-TV Atlanta
