Four people died after two small planes crashed mid-air at a regional airport in Australia, the Police said.
The incident took place near Mangalore Airport, some 120 kilometres north of Melbourne on Wednesday morning.
“Emergency services were called to two separate crash scenes.
“Two occupants in each aircraft have died at the scenes.
“The four persons are yet to be identified.’’
Later, another police officer at the scene clarified that the two aircraft collided mid-air, but were not incinerated, before crashing to the ground.
“One plane almost certainly crashed immediately and the other plane crashed about two kilometres north from here and both were extensively damaged prior to colliding with the ground,’’ Peter Koger, a local area commander, told reporters.
CASA said one of the planes was a Piper PA-44 Seminole twin-engine registered to a local training centre, while the second was a privately-owned Beech Travel Air D95A.
Police, CASA and ATSB are all currently investigating.