Two Small Planes Collide Near L.A.

It was a horrifying scene that sent golfers running for cover and forced commuters off a busy Los Angeles freeway, CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports. Two small airplanes collided in mid-air above the heavily populated San Fernando Valley.

The two craft involved were an experimental, home built ultra-light and a single engine plane. "Right after the collision in the air, I saw both planes spiral down," said a witness.

Four people, all on board the planes, were killed. No one on the ground was injured, though many feared they'd be hit by debris.

"In front of me, I just saw an airplane spiraling down nose first, and I thought for sure it was gonna hit the freeway," said a witness.

The experimental home-built plane actually landed upside down in a field next to the freeway, but the larger, single engine plane regained control for a moment, then plunged into a power line and exploded just above the golf course.

"I was about to hit my shot, just basically a hundred feet from the airplane. When we looked up, we heard the explosion," said one of the golfers on the course. "We looked up to see this other aircraft just falling straight down almost on top of our heads."

There were almost two thousand small plane crashes last year. Still, it's a rare occurrence for two planes to collide in mid-air. Last year it happened 18 times.