Man, 14-year-old boy die in New York state plane collision: police

By Alex Dobuzinskis (Reuters) - The pilot of a small plane and his 14-year-old passenger died on Saturday when their aircraft struck another plane and crashed during an event in upstate New York to introduce young people to aviation, officials said. A Cessna 172, single-engine plane, and a Searey amateur-built aircraft collided about 6 miles (10 kms) southeast of Buffalo-Lancaster Regional Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The Cessna then crashed in a wooded area in Lancaster, police said. A 72-year-old man piloting the Cessna and a 14-year-old boy riding in the plane died in the crash, the Lancaster Police Department said on its Facebook page. Police have not released the names of the two people killed. The pilot of the Searey aircraft safely landed in a field in Alden, New York, the FAA said. The pilot and a 9-year-old girl who was a passenger in the plane walked away from the scene unharmed, the Buffalo News reported. The Experimental Aircraft Association on its Facebook page reported the collision involved its Young Eagles program, which gives children hands-on experience with aviation and that the program was run by its Buffalo, New York, chapter. A spokesman for the association could not be reached for comment. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the collision. It appears the pilots of both planes were flying to Buffalo-Lancaster Regional Airport when they collided, police said. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Jon Herskovitz)