Three people killed when two planes collide in midair at California airport

One person was onboard a Cessna 152 and two were in a Cessna 340, say officials

Three people were killed when two planes collided midair at a California airport on Thursday afternoon, according to officials.

The accident took place on Thursday afternoon at the Watsonville Municipal Airport in Watsonville, California, a town of just more than 50,000 people located on Monterey Bay roughly 50 miles south of San Jose.

The victims will not be publicly identified until their families have been notified, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.

“Multiple agencies responded to Watsonville Municipal Airport after two planes attempting to land collided. We have reports of multiple fatalities,” the City of Watsonville tweeted following the collision.

Read live updates on the airplane crash here

The Federal Aviation Administration says that a single-engine Cessna 152 and a twin-engine Cessna 340 collided as their respective pilots were on their final approaches into the airport.

Officials say that one person was onboard the Cessna 152 and two were in the Cessna 340, have not yet identified who they were or if they survived the crash. No one on the ground at the site of the collision reported any injuries, even though the crash happened just yards away from a street lined with residential homes.

One of the planes appears to have crashed into a hanger at the airport, while the other could be seen in news video in a nearby field.

Two planes crash at airport in Watsonville, California. (KGO)

Both the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board have launched probes into the accident, while The California Highway Patrol has closed roads around the site of the crash.

(KGO)

The Watsonville Municipal Airport has just two runways and does not service any commercial flights.