Two people have been hospitalized after a crash landing at Falcon Field Airport on Friday, Mesa fire officials said.
First responders were initially called to the airport around 1 p.m. for reports of two planes colliding mid-flight. By the time authorities arrived, one aircraft had landed safely while the other, an Air Force Warbird, had crashed while landing.
The Mesa Fire and Medical Department detailed the crash saying, “There was a total of three planes flying in formation during the mid-air incident.
The second plane did a fly by with their landing gear still stowed. The third inbound plane was the plane in distress. Just before the runway, the Warbird crashed onto the far East end of runway 22L.
The landing gear failed, the aircraft broke in half behind the cockpit, the plane went nose down and came to a stop on the runway. There was no active fire. The two occupants were conscious, injured and still trapped in the plane. The incident was balanced to an ALT3 (Aircraft crash, resulting in more Fire Department Units responding).”
Two people had to be extricated from the crashed plane and were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate this incident.