'Amazing': Pilots, passenger uninjured after midair crash

The pilot that requested emergency landing was the only person aboard a twin-engine Fairchild Metroliner that landed at Centennial Airport despite major damage to its tail section. The plane is owned by a Colorado-based Key Lime Air, which operates cargo aircraft.

"Looks like the right engine failed so I'm gonna continue my landing here," the pilot said in an audio clip with air traffic control.

The second plane, a single-engine 2016 Cirrus SR22, was rented by Independence Aviation, the company said in a statement. Its pilot successfully deployed an airframe parachute system designed by Cirrus Aircraft to slow the craft's descent after a collision.

The Cirrus plane had a pilot and one passenger on board when the pilot deployed a red-and-white parachute and drifted down to a safe landing in a field near homes in Cherry Creek State Park, Arapahoe County sheriff's Deputy John Bartmann said.

"Every one of these pilots needs to go buy a lottery ticket right now," Bartmann said. "I don't remember anything like this — especially everybody walking away. I mean that's the amazing part of this."

Christopher T. O'Neil, a spokesperson for The National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency investigating the collision said he expects to have an update Thursday on the incident.

June Cvelbar told the KUSA TV station that she witnessed the collision while walking in a state park.

"I saw two planes in the sky. I saw a larger green plane, which I thought was a tow plane, along with what I thought was a glider being towed by it. I heard a noise but didn't realize that the two planes had collided," she told KUSA in an email.

Cvelbar said she saw the green plane fly off and shortly after saw the smaller plane deploy its parachute. She said she initially thought it was a training exercise.

"When I realized that the small plane was going down I ran toward it. The pilot and his passenger were up and about," Cvelbar said.

Shelly Whitehead told KCNC-TV that she was in her kitchen when she heard a loud bang that sounded like a firecracker. She ran out onto her patio and saw the plane that deployed the parachute coming down in the field behind her house.

"I thought, 'Is it somebody just jumping out of a plane?' And then I realized the parachute was attached to a plane," she said. "I thought for sure they weren't going to make it out of there."

Both Key Lime Air, a passenger and cargo charter company, and Independence Aviation, a flight school and aircraft rental firm that owns the Cirrus airplane, are based outside Centennial Airport, one of the busiest general aviation airports in Colorado.

"At this time, we are allowing the NTSB and FAA to conduct their investigation," said a statement issued by Derek Severns of the Cirrus Platinum Training Center, a pilot training center.

Authorities did not immediately identify the people who were in the planes.

The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that it was sending staff to investigate. Key Lime Air will cooperate with the investigation, the company said in a statement.