Pilot killed after 2 vintage planes collide mid-air in Lancaster

LANCASTER, Calif. - Federal authorities were investigating after a pilot was killed when two vintage planes collided mid-air in the skies above Lancaster. 

The pilot who died has since been identified as 62-year-old Ryder Adams. The second pilot managed to escape with no injuries.

The crash happened Sunday around 12:50 a.m., according to a watch commander at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Lancaster station.

One of the planes came down in the area of 47th Street East and Avenue F, and the other in the area of 60th Street East and Avenue G, Capt. Sheila Kelliher of the Los Angeles County Fire Department told City News Service.

It was unclear which plane was carrying the pilot who died.

Federal authorities were looking into the cause of the crash.

A pilot was killed during a mid-air collision with another plane in Lancaster on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. / SkyFOX

"NTSB is investigating the midair collision of a Yakovlev Yak-52 and Nanchang CJ-6A near Lancaster, California,'' the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Sunday afternoon.

The Yak-52 was described as a vintage Soviet-era aircraft, and the CJ-6A was a decades-old Chinese plane.

Officials had initially described the planes as Cessnas.