One pilot was killed and another suffered “life-threatening” injuries in a mid-air collision Thursday in Idaho, authorities said.
The fatal crash happened around 12:30 p.m. just west of Arco Airport in Arco when two crop-dusters slammed into each other, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The circumstances of the crash and events leading up to it were not immediately known. Both planes went down in a sage- and grass-filled area, the sheriff’s office noted.
A photo of the scene sent to East Idaho News shows the wreckage in an open area several miles from nearby mountains.
A resident reported on the sheriff’s office Facebook post about the crash that both planes “were flying super low over [their] property” a few hours before the incident.
“I’m not a pilot and do not know the rules, but those planes were literally 20 feet above my roof,” the user wrote.
One pilot was found dead at the scene and the other was rushed to the hospital with “life-threatening” injuries. There has been no other update about their condition.
Neither pilot was identified.
The National Transit Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash, the sheriff’s said.
The city of Arco operates the two runway airport. Arco is about 200 miles east of Boise.
