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Two private planes that collided over Corona,
a suburban of Los Angeles,
on January 20, killing five people, did not try to avoid one another before the
crash, federal investigators said in a preliminary report Thursday.
The report, released by the National Transportation Safety
Board said a witness saw both aircrafts cruising toward each other for at least
five seconds without taking an evasive maneuver.
The conclusion of the report lead to one single scenario:
the pilots of the two planes did not see each other.
“There is no evidence to indicate that this was anything but
an accident,” said NTSB investigator William Pollack, according to the Associated
Press.
The crash happened around 3:35 p.m., 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles and north of Riverside
freeway and involved one Cessna 172 with four seats and one Cessna with two
seats. Two people in each plane were killed, along with a fifth person who was
struck by aircraft parts that fell through the roof of an auto dealership.
The report said the Cessna 150 was headed east on approach to
the airport and the Cessna 172 was traveling north at the time of the
collision.
The report did not blame any of the pilots. NTSB officials
stressed that the investigation was in its early stages and the complete report
would not be available until the end of the year.
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