Three people are dead today following the midair collision and crash of two small planes near an airport in southern San Diego County, authorities say. The collision occurred around 11am about two miles northeast of Brown Field Municipal Airport, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor. Three fatalities were reported, Sheriff's Lt. Jim Bolwerk says; NBC San Diego puts the death toll at four. Bolwerk did not have details on the victims but says they were apparently on board the planes.
There were no reports of injuries on the ground. Both planes—a twin-engine Sabreliner and a single-engine Cessna 172—were inbound to Brown Field at the time of the crash, Gregor says. Crews extinguished small fires sparked in dry brush at the crash site in a rural area, Bolwerk says. Brown Field, a former Naval auxiliary air station, is in the Otay Mesa area about 15 miles southeast of downtown San Diego, near the border with Mexico. The crash triggered two brush fires that fire officials extinguished with water dumped from a helicopter. (More plane crash stories.)