Cessnas Collide Midair; No Injuries

Federal authorities say two small planes carrying a total of six people have collided in the air in western Colorado, but both landed safely and no injuries have been reported.

Allen Kenitzer of the Federal Aviation Administration says it's "truly one of those miracles" that no one was hurt.

The collision occurred Wednesday morning near Grand Junction, about 190 miles west of Denver.

Kenitzer says a Cessna 210 carrying four people landed at Grand Junction Regional Airport after the collision and a Cessna 180 with two people aboard landed somewhere off the airport.

One of the pilots described the midair collision as coming on suddenly, as if out of nowhere.

"All of a sudden, there was an airplane headed for us," Tom Haefeli, who was piloting one of the Cessnas, told CBS station KREX in Grand Junction. "We tried to dive under him and they just clipped us and took our vertical stabilizer off."

"Then we found out we had a little bit of control," said John Haefeli, a passenger in the same plane. "So we thought, might as well try to save it. So here we are."