NORTH COLLINS, N.Y., Sept. 25 (UPI) — Three people were killed after two small planes collided in the skies near Buffalo on Sunday morning, officials said.
Brandon Wilczynski, a captain in the North Collins Fire Company, confirmed the number of deaths to The Buffalo News. They were the only ones on the planes, the officials said.
Scott Zylka, a spokesman for the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, told The Buffalo News two planes collided around 9:45 a.m., leaving a debris field near two homes across the street from one another.
The two planes took off at about the same time from the Hamburg Airport, town Supervisor John M. Tobia said he was told by emergency responders at the crash scene.
Tobia said he a man and a woman was on one of the planes and a man was aboard the other aircraft.
One aircraft landed in a field and the other between a metal storage building and a wooded area, the supervisor said.
“It’s like a pancake. It’s crushed,” Tobia said. “You can’t tell it’s an aircraft.”
A witness told a WGRZ photographer he saw two planes collide.
North Collins is 23 miles south of Buffalo.
Zylka said he did not know the type of planes.
The sheriff’s office contacted the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
