3 Killed in Midair Crash of 2 Planes : Aviation: Student and instructor were practicing takeoffs and landings before collision with a second aircraft over Chino. Both pilots were under visual flight rules.

Two single-engine airplanes collided over a Chino dairy pasture Saturday, killing three people, authorities said.

The midair collision occurred about 11:30 a.m. under rainy skies when a Cessna 152 carrying a flight instructor and student pilot collided with a Lancair 320 carrying just the pilot, said Thomas H. Wilcox, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

All three victims died on impact, said Carl Morrow, deputy coroner-investigator in the San Bernardino County coroner’s office. The solo pilot of the Lancair was identified as Daniel R. Garn, 69, of Salt Lake City. The victims in the Cessna were flight instructor Gonzalo B. Ocon, 53, of Mission Viejo and student pilot Richard G. Hopkins, 25, of Westminster.

At the time of the collision, the pilot of the Lancair--an experimental, high-performance, low-wing aircraft--was in contact with the airport control tower at Brackett Field in La Verne, Wilcox said.

The Cessna, at an altitude of about 1,500 feet, was approaching Runway 26 from the east for a landing when it collided with the Lancair, sources said. The flight instructor and student pilot had been making practice takeoffs and landings all morning on Runway 26. It was unclear who was in control at the time of the accident.

The pilots in both planes were flying under visual flight rules, using their eyes rather than instruments, as guides, Wilcox said. Visibility at the time was five miles.

“The weather shouldn’t have been a problem,” said Fred O’Donnell, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The planes crashed within 100 yards of each other near Remington and Carpenter roads, about three-quarters of a mile east of the airport. The Cessna fell on Remington Avenue, about 100 feet from the driveway of Annie Nyenhuis, the wife of a dairy farmer.

“I was putting on my makeup in the bathroom when I heard a loud, loud bang,” Nyenhuis said. “My daughter ran in and said: ‘Mom, two planes have just collided.’ ”

Investigators from the NTSB and FAA are examining the wreckage and interviewing witnesses to determine the cause of the crash.