A pilot managed to safely land a cargo plane that had its roof ripped off during a mid-air collision with another aircraft.
Remarkably, no one was injured in the death-defying accident thousands of feet above the ground in airspace over Denver, Colorado, on Wednesday. Both of the small aircrafts were preparing to land at an airport in Denver when they collided in the sky, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The mid-air smash left one of the planes, a green twin-engine Key Lime Air cargo aircraft, with a massive hole in its roof and the inside of the plane blown open.
But incredibly the pilot, who was flying alone, was able to deploy the onboard parachute and safely land the plane at the nearby Centennial Airport, according to Arapahoe County Sherriff’s Deputy John Bartmann.
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A pilot and one passenger who were on the other plane, a Cirrus SR22 single-engine aircraft, also safely landed after deploying their parachute to float to the ground.
Photos of the worse damaged plane after landing shows how the aircraft’s rear fuselage had suffered extensive damage in the accident. The plane’s interior can be seen hanging out, completely exposed.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it is launching an investigation into the incident.
Flight tracking websites show the planes collided as they both turned toward Centennial Airport’s parallel runways.
According to the The Colorado Sun, the Key Lime Air plane was cleared to land on Runway 17 at roughly the same time the smaller red and white Cirrus plane was also cleared to land on a parallel runway. The messages were conveyed on different air traffic control frequencies, the outlet reported.
The Cirrus’ pilots were warned not to steer too far east and stay toward the west end of Cherry Creek Reservoir as they approached to land.
Air traffic control warned the Cirrus that the Key Lime Air plane was nearby but moments later, the planes collided.
‘Looks like the right engine failed so I’m going to continue my landing’, the Key Lime Air pilot said, apparently not realizing the collision had happened.
Another pilot then called air traffic controllers to say they saw the Cirrus with its parachute deployed, indicating there was a collision.
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