MARANA, Ariz. — Two small planes collided in midair over Marana Regional Airport outside Tuscon, Arizona, on Wednesday, federal officials and local police confirmed. The Marana Police Department said in a Facebook post that there were “two confirmed dead” and that the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were responding to the scene.

“NTSB is investigating a mid-air collision between Cessna 172S and Lancair 360 MK II near Marana, Arizona,” the NTSB said in a social media post. 

The FAA said in a statement to local media that the collision occurred around 8:25 a.m. MST and that two people were on each plane.

One plane landed uneventfully with the other hit the ground near a runway and catching fire, the NTSB said, based on preliminary information before its investigators had arrived.

The FAA also said that the airport is considered an “uncontrolled field,” or an airport with no air traffic control tower and where pilots are responsible for communicating with each other. The airport has two intersecting runways.

A multimillion-dollar project was underway to build a tower but delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back construction. Tens of thousands of flights arrive and depart from the airport annually.

The Cessna 172S, or Cessna Skyhawk, is a four-seat plane billed as “the most popular single-engine aircraft ever built” and is often used for flight training. The Lancair 360 MK II is a two-seater, single-engine plane.

A small agricultural plane crashed between two houses in Marana last October.

Wednesday's collision comes just over a week after two private jets collided on the runway at a Scottsdale, Arizona, airport, killing one person. And the collision comes at a time when U.S. flights have suffered a series of high-profile crashes and collisions, including in Toronto on Monday. A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground. And on Feb. 6, 10 people were killed in a plane crash in Alaska.

It also comes as President Donald Trump has ordered large swaths of the federal government, including portions of the FAA, to downsize their staff and halt operations.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The Associated Press contributed to this report