Update: 3 people, dog killed after 2 planes collide mid-air in Watsonville: It ‘just spiraled down’

1:30 p.m. Update: Investigators seek radio traffic

There were two people and a dog aboard a twin-engine Cessna 340 and only the pilot aboard a single-engine Cessna 152 during the crash, National Transportation Safety Board air safety investigator Fabian Salazar said. The dog and all three people were killed.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB are investigating, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office said.

“We have what appears to be one aircraft operating in a traffic pattern and one aircraft coming into the airport to land,” Salazar said.

Salazar said investigators were still collecting evidence and will talk to witnesses. A preliminary report on the fatal collision from the NTSB is expected in two weeks, he said.

"We are working to get the radio communications that were occurring on that day," he said.

Update: Death toll at 3 after crash

Three people were killed after two small planes collided in Northern California while trying to land at a rural airport, authorities said Friday.

The names of those killed after their planes crashed Thursday at the Watsonville Municipal Airport will be released once their families have been notified, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Original story:

WATSONVILLE — Multiple fatalities have been reported after two planes collided in Watsonville while trying to land at a local airport, officials said Thursday. At least two of the three occupants were killed, officials said.

The collision occurred at Watsonville Municipal Airport shortly before 3 p.m., according to a tweet from the city of Watsonville. The city-owned airport does not have a control tower to direct aircraft landing and taking off.

There were two people aboard a twin-engine Cessna 340 and only the pilot aboard a single-engine Cessna 152 during the crash, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It was not immediately clear whether any of them survived.

The pilots were on their final approaches to the airport when the collision occurred, the FAA said in a statement. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

No one on the ground was injured.

Photos and videos from the scene posted on social media showed the wreckage of one small plane in a grassy field by the airport. A photo from the city of Watsonville showed damage to a small building at the airport, with firefighters on the scene.

A second plane crashed in a neighborhood near the airport, at Buena Vista Drive and Calabasas Road, KRON4 reported, citing a law enforcement official.

Witnesses told the East Bay Times newspaper they saw two airplanes collide about 200 feet in the air.

Franky Herrera of Watsonville told the paper he was driving past the airport when he saw a twin-engine plane bank hard to the right and hit the wing of a smaller, single-engine aircraft.

“The smaller plane just spiraled down and crashed right here,” said Herrera, 26, an off-duty law enforcement officer. He said the twin-engine plane continued on, but “it was struggling,” and then he saw flames at the other side of the airport, where initial reports indicated the aircraft had struck a hangar.

Additional information was not immediately available.

Watsonville is about 31 miles north of Salinas.

The airport has four runways and is home to more than 300 aircraft, according to its website. It handles more than 55,000 operations a year and is used often for recreational planes and agriculture businesses. The airport accounts for about 40% of all general aviation activities in the Monterey Bay area, according to the City of Watsonville’s website.

Two other pilots also were hurt in aircraft crashes elsewhere in California on Thursday.

A 65-year-old San Diego man received major but non-life threatening injuries when his single-engine plane crashed on a street near a busy freeway overpass in El Cajon, authorities said.

The plane reportedly struck an SUV but nobody on the ground was hurt in the city nearly 20 miles northeast of downtown San Diego.

Later, the pilot of an ultralight aircraft was critically injured when it crashed upside down on a building at the Camarillo Airport in Ventura County, about 60 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

This is a breaking news story and may be updated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Multiple fatalities after 2 planes collide in California's Watsonville