Four people dead after two planes collide mid-air in Victoria
Four people are dead after two planes collided mid-air before crashing in regional Victoria.
Police were called to Mangalore about 130km north of Melbourne just before 11.30am on Wednesday.
Two occupants in each of the planes died at the scene and are yet to be identified.
Police said in a statement they were called to two separate crash scenes east of the Mangalore airfield.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is aware of the incident and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau have been notified.
A spokesman for CASA told Yahoo News Australia the planes involved were a Piper Seminole that was registered to Moorabbin Aviation Services and a Beechcraft Travel Air, believed to be registered to a private owner in Tyabb.
Both planes are twin-engine aircrafts, with the Piper having a capacity of four occupants.
The spokesperson believes the Piper was on a training flight during the crash, but it is unknown what the Travel Air was doing at the time.
“We will wait for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to get investigators on scene the piece it together,” he said.
Footage of the plane wreckages shows one aircraft in a clearing while debris from the second plane is seen in a bush nearby.
Channel 9 reporter Tony Jones told 3AW radio the crash scene “didn’t look good”.
“It has broken up, a number of parts of that plane ... have broken free from the actual aircraft,” he said.
“It’s quite a grim scene,” he said.
Mitchell Local Area Commander Inspector Peter Koger told reporters they were trying to identify the exact location of the crash but both planes were legally in the area and landed on a private property.
The bodies of those killed were found in the wreckage of both planes.
Police will prepare a report for the coroner and investigations are ongoing.
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