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A helicopter and a single-engine plane collided in midair over a Phoenix suburb on Friday, and the two people aboard the helicopter died after crashing into a brush field near an airport municipal officials, officials said. The flight instructor and a student on the plane landed safely and were not injured.
The collision occurred in the town of Chandler, near the Chandler Municipal Airport, which does not have regular commercial air passenger service, the police sergeant said. Jason McClimans. He said no one on the ground was injured.
A news footage showed a fire crew using a tarp to cover the burnt helicopter wreckage in the brush on what appeared to be wasteland or land near the southern edge of the airport. The aircraft was standing at the airport near a runway and its fuselage appeared to be intact.
A helicopter near Phoenix, Arizona, collided with a single-engine aircraft in flight.
(AP Photo / Phelan M. Ebenhack)
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The aircraft’s landing gear, a Piper PA-28, was damaged in the collision, but the aircraft landed safely, the Federal Aviation Administration reported in a statement. The helicopter was a Robinson R22, according to the FAA.
Richard Bengoa said in an interview that he is the owner of the small Chandler-based aircraft rental company that owns the four-seater aircraft, which is primarily used for flight training. He said the only people on board were the flight instructor and the student pilot. Authorities said neither of them needed medical attention after the plane landed.
Although authorities did not allow Bengoa to approach the plane, he said it appeared from a distance that the plane’s landing gear had been damaged. He said he had no information on how the collision happened and was not allowed to speak with the flight instructor or the student pilot.
Bengoa described his business as “not quite” a flight school.
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“It’s more of a family business to promote aviation and help people get their licenses,” Bengoa said.
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The airport has been closed, McClimans said. The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the cause of the collision and the helicopter crash, according to the FAA, which will help with the investigation.
Police were looking for witnesses and people who could have filmed the collision and the helicopter crash.
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