Commuter Plane Lands Safely After Collision Over Ala.

A commuter plane with seven people aboard landed safely at Gadsden Municipal Airport after a collision with a smaller plane that killed two other people, authorities said.

The Atlantic Southeast Airlines plane was en route to Atlanta when the crash with a single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawk occurred Monday at an altitude of 2,100 feet.

The smaller plane, with two Civil Air Patrol pilots aboard, plunged into a field after the collision, which occurred about three miles southwest of Gadsden.

The tail section of the larger craft, a Brazilian-made Embraer turboprop, was damaged in the collision but it landed safely. “I don’t know how he ever got it down. Part of the tail was torn off,” said Fred Anderton Jr., airport manager. “The pilot, to control an aircraft with that amount of control surface torn from the aircraft, did a remarkable job.”