One person died and others were injured when a private jet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil collided with another plane on Monday afternoon at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, authorities said.
Neil’s plane was landing at the airport when it veered off the runway and collided with another parked plane, Neil’s representative, Worrick Robinson, IV, said in a statement. There were two pilots and two passengers on Neil’s plane, but he was not among them.
“Mr Neil’s thoughts and prayers are with all involved, and he is grateful for the fundamental help of all the first responders who attended today,” Robinson said.
The arriving plane veered off the runway and struck the parked Gulfstream 200, according to Kelli Kuester, aviation planning and outreach coordinator at Scottsdale Airport. The main landing gear of the arriving plane reportedly failed, causing the collision, she said.
Kuester said four people were on the arriving plane, which was coming from Austin, Texas, and one person was on the parked plane.
Two people injured in the crash were taken to trauma centers and one was in stable condition at a hospital, said Scottsdale Fire Department Captain Dave Folio. He said they were working to recover the body of the person who died in the collision.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in this,” Folio said.
The track has been closed and will remain closed “for the foreseeable future,” Kuester said.
Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky said in a statement that she is closely monitoring the situation and is in contact with the airport, police and federal agencies.
“On behalf of the city of Scottsdale, we offer our deepest condolences to those involved in the accident and to those who have been taken to our trauma center for treatment,” he said. “We will keep all those affected by this tragedy in our prayers.”
The airport is a popular hub for planes coming in and out of the Phoenix area, especially during big sporting event weekends such as the Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament, which draws large crowds just a few miles away.
The US air crisis continues
The Scottsdale collision comes after three major aviation disasters in the United States in the past two weeks. A commercial plane and an Army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on January 29, killing 67 people
A medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31, killing all six people on board and another person on the ground
And last week, a small passenger plane crashed in western Alaska on its way to the community of Nome, where the operations centers are located, killing all 10 people on board.