Police identify 2 people who died in a February midair collision at an Arizona airport

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This article was published 06/03/2025 (386 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MARANA, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities have publicly identified two people killed last month in the midair collision of two small planes at a southern Arizona airport.

Police say 70-year-old Michael Reinath and 76-year-old Linda Gifford died in the Feb. 19 collision at Marana Regional Airport on the outskirts of Tucson. Reinath and Gifford lived in Rio Vista, California.

Federal Aviation Administration documents say the single-engine Lancair 360 MK II involved in the crash was registered to Reinath.

Investigators say each plane had two people aboard when they collided. One plane landed uneventfully, and the Lancair with Reinath and Gifford aboard hit the ground near a runway and caught fire.

Airport videos provided Thursday by the town of Marana captured the moment of the collision, showing the Lancair as it fell to the ground and burst into flames and emitted black smoke. Footage taken from a different angle shows the other plane climbing in altitude when the collision occurred.

The collision came more than a week after a plane crash in Scottsdale killed one of two pilots of a private jet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil. That aircraft veered off a runway and hit a business jet.

In late January, 67 people were killed in a midair collision in Washington, D.C., involving an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter, marking the United States’ deadliest aviation disaster since 2001. Just a day later, a medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood on Jan. 31, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes. That crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured 19 others.