SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — At least one person was killed and others were injured when private jets collided Monday afternoon at the Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, authorities said.
A midsize business jet hit another midsize business jet that was parked on private property, according to Kelli Kuester, aviation planning and outreach coordinator at the Scottsdale Airport.
One jet veered off the runway and collided with the Gulfstream 200 jet that was parked, according to Kuester. It appeared that the primary landing gear of the arriving jet, resulting in the collision, she said.
Kuester said four people were on the arriving jet, which had come from Austin, Texas, and one was in the parked plane.
Two people injured in the collision were taken to trauma centers and one was in stable condition at a hospital, Scottsdale Fire Department Capt. Dave Folio said. He said they were working to recover the body of the person killed in the collision.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody involved in this,” Folio said.
The runway has been closed and will remain closed “for the foreseeable future,” Kuester said.
The airport is a popular hub for jets coming in and out of the Phoenix area, especially during big sports weekends like the Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament, which attracts huge crowds just a few miles away.
The Scottsdale collision comes after three major U.S. aviation disasters in the past two weeks. A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on Jan. 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground. And last week a small commuter plane crashed in western Alaska on its way to the hub community of Nome, killing all 10 people on board.