[chris]

Two single-engine planes collided in the air over Longmont, Colorado, on March 23, 2012, killing a flight instructor and his student and leaving a third pilot to be pulled alive from her wrecked airplane, authorities said.

The instructor, Ryan Brungardt, 30, of Strasburg, and his student, Edward Omohundro, 64, of Evergreen, were killed when their Cessna 172 came down along a two-lane road about 5 miles east of Vance Brand Municipal Airport, according to the Weld County coroner's office and the National Transportation Safety Board. The two had taken off from Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield to fly practice maneuvers.

The other airplane, a Cessna 180 flown by Beverly Cameron of Erie, clipped power lines and a chain-link fence as she tried to reach the runway, then came to rest at a public works yard next to the airport, investigators said. Cameron survived and was listed in good condition. Rescuers who pried open her cockpit said she was conscious and pleading, "Get me out, get me out, help me out."

The wreckage fell in two locations about 6 miles apart, and the crashes were reported roughly 5 minutes apart, generating separate 911 calls, according to Longmont police. Downed lines left about 132 customers without power.

Witnesses described a sudden impact. "He just accelerated right into the ground and that was it," Joe Baker told reporters. "One big boom and that was it." Dustin Nelson, an oilfield services worker who reached one of the scenes, said, "By the time we got there, there was just nothing we could do."

Investigators later determined that the left wing of the Cessna 172 struck the right horizontal stabilizer of the Cessna 180 in flight, tearing away part of the 172's wing and leaving it uncontrollable. Cameron reported hearing a loud bang before her plane pitched up and rolled. Skies were clear with visibility of about 60 miles, and neither pilot was receiving air traffic control advisories, though neither was required to.

In a final report approved in August 2012, the safety board listed the probable cause as the inadequate visual lookout by both pilots, which resulted in the mid-air collision. No criminal charges were filed.