Corona planes didn’t swerve, report says

Two small planes that collided in midair over Corona last month and killed five people never swerved to avoid contact, indicating that the pilots may not have spotted one another even though it was a clear day, according to a preliminary report released Thursday.

Witnesses told investigators that the Cessna 172 and Cessna 150 flew toward each other for at least five seconds before the collision, the National Transportation Safety Board report stated.

One plane was flying north and the other was flying east, according to a witness cited in the report.

“No maneuvering was observed during the seconds immediately prior to the impact,” the report said.

The investigation is continuing, but “there is no indication that it’s anything other than an accident,” said Wayne Pollack, an NTSB investigator.

Investigators were carefully sifting through the wreckage from the Jan. 20 crash, which occurred 1.4 miles south of Corona Municipal Airport.

The collision killed a pilot and passenger in each plane. Debris rained over a busy commercial area, killing a fifth person, who was sitting inside a Chevrolet dealership.

The planes fell nose-down, and wings were torn off. The cockpit, firewall and engine parts of the Cessna 150 ripped an engine-size hole in the roof of a building and landed on the ground floor, according to the report.

Investigators found fuel among the wreckage, but there was no evidence of fire, the report said.

Pieces of the planes were taken to a secure examination facility in the desert, where they are being tested, photographed and measured, Pollack said.

A team of investigators from different agencies is physically reconstructing the planes and building computer models to determine the exact angle at which the collision occurred.

The physical evidence will be combined with pilots’ previous records, autopsy reports and toxicology assessments to determine what exactly happened, Pollack said.

NTSB officials stressed that the investigation was in its very early stages and the complete report would not be available until the end of the year.

“We don’t casually speculate on issues until all of the evidence is in,” Pollack said.

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victoria.kim@latimes.com