Ten killed as planes collide over New Jersey

Two light aircraft were involved in a mid-air collision in America yesterday, killing 10 people.

Two light aircraft were involved in a mid-air collision in America yesterday, killing 10 people.

Falling wreckage crashed into a house in a small development near Trenton, New Jersey, and set it on fire, but authorities believed no one on the ground was injured. Eight of those killed were aboard a Piper Navajo that had taken off from Lakehurst Naval Air Station, said Arlene Salac, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The two who died in the second plane, a Piper Seminole from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, were a flight instructor and a student, Ms Salac said.

A local resident, Antoinette Carnivale, saw the collision. "I saw smoke and flames and pieces coming down," she said.

Mary Miles, who lives in the same development as the house that was hit, heard the crash. "I thought it was thunder, and then I turned on the television and saw it was actually a plane crash," she said.

The couple who lived in the house that was struck escaped unharmed, although fire extensively damaged their two-storey home, in a suburban development about 10 milessouth of Trenton.

An aircraft tail section landed in a field several hundred yards from homes and what appeared to be a piece of wing fell on the roof of a home. (AP)