2 planes collide midair above Denver, no one injured

<p>DENVER &mdash; Two small airplanes collided in midair Wednesday near Denver, leaving one aircraft nearly ripped in half and forcing the pilot of the other to deploy a parachute attached to the plane to land safely. Remarkably, no one was injured, officials said. </p>
<p>Both planes were getting ready to land at a small regional airport in a Denver suburb when they collided mid-morning, according to the National Transportation Safety Board and South Metro Fire Rescue.</p>
<p>“Every one of these pilots needs to go buy a lottery ticket right now,” Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Deputy John Bartmann said. “I don’t remember anything like this — especially everybody walking away. I mean that’s the amazing part of this.”</p>
<p>June Cvelbar told the KUSA TV station that she witnessed the collision while walking in Cherry Creek State Park.</p>
<p>“I saw two planes in the sky. I saw a larger green plane, which I thought was a tow plane, along with what I thought was a glider being towed by it. I heard a noise but didn’t realize that the two planes had collided,′ she told KUSA in an email.</p>
<p>Cvelbar said she saw the green plane fly off and shortly after saw the smaller plane deploy its parachute. She said she initially thought it was a training exercise.</p>
<p>“When I realized that the small plane was going down I ran toward it. The pilot and his passenger were up and about,” Cvelbar said. </p>
<p>The pilot was the only person aboard a twin-engine Fairchild Metroliner that landed at Centennial Airport despite suffering major damage to its tail section. The plane is owned by a Colorado-based company called Key Lime Air that operates cargo aircraft.</p>
<p>A pilot and one passenger were on the other plane, a Cirrus SR22 single-engine plane that unleashed a red and white parachute to float to a safe landing in a field near homes in Cherry Creek State Park, Bartmann said. </p>
<p>It was not immediately known who owned the Cirrus plane, he said. </p>
<p>The National Transportation Safety Board said in a tweet it was sending staff to investigate the incident. Key Lime Air will cooperate with the investigation, the company said in a statement. </p>