LONGMONT — Two small airplanes collided over southeast Longmont on Friday morning, killing two people and sending one plane spiraling to the ground, while the other clipped a power line and crashed near Vance Brand Municipal Airport on the west side of town.
A Cessna 172 crashed at 11:45 a.m. near County Line Road, about three-quarters of a mile south of Colorado 119 in southeast Longmont. A flight instructor and student were killed, according to Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur. He confirmed that both were males, but did not release any other information, pending notification of next of kin.
The other plane, a Cessna 180, crashed five minutes later, near the city’s services building, just west of Airport Road near St. Vrain Road.
“It hit right behind our yard,” said Jesse Cordova, a city public works employee. “We were cleaning up the yard, and one of our co-workers said ‘Call 911! Call 911!’ I thought one of our employees got injured.”
Chris Rodriguez, a member of the Longmont Airport Advisory Board, said Bev Cameron, an Erie flight instructor, was the only person in that plane. Cameron was treated at Longmont United Hospital, police said.
At the site of the County Line Road crash, it quickly became apparent to passers-by that no one had survived. Among the crowd of emergency vehicles, no ambulances were leaving the scene and no helicopters arrived for an airlift.
“Oh, my God,” one woman said as the realization hit. “I just got chills all the way up my legs.”
Kim Johnson, a pilot who had just finished bicycling along the St. Vrain Greenway with a friend, said he looked up when he heard a plane “throttle up” in the sky above him near County Line Road. At first, he said, it sounded like someone was practicing stalling.
He looked up and saw one of the planes spiraling down, missing part of one wing. The second plane began to slowly circle westbound, he said, and appeared to be missing a wheel.
“When you see a plane spiraling, it doesn’t have a chance,” said Johnson, who has flown out of Vance Brand for 16 years.
He suspected that one plane may have been in the other’s blind spot and that the noise came from one pilot speeding up at the last minute to try to avoid a collision.
Longmont Police Cmdr. Tim Lewis said Cameron’s plane was approaching the airport from the east when it clipped a power line at Airport Road, crashing and rolling several times before coming to a stop.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators responded to the scenes. Investigators from the FAA and the airframe and engine manufacturers are expected to join the scene
today.
Times-Call staff writer Quentin Young contributed to this report.
