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Two private jets clipped their wings at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday (October 24) afternoon. Authorities said the incident happened around 3:30 p.m. when a twin-engine Hawker H25B departed without permission from air traffic controllers.
The Hawker collided with a twin-engine Cessna C510 business jet that was landing.
KHOU obtained audio recordings of one of the pilots talking to air traffic controllers after the collision.
"We just had a midair. We can't do that," one of the pilots said.
"Say what," the air traffic controller replied.
"Yeah. Somebody just. You guys cleared somebody to take off or land, and we hit him on the departure," the pilot explained.
"Yes, sir. You need to come back to the airport, you said, right?" the air traffic controller asked.
"Yeah. Immediately," the pilot replied.
It is unclear how many people were on each plane, but there were no injuries reported.
The airport was shut down for several hours, and all flights were grounded as crews worked to clear the debris from the runway.
"There's a lot of confusion around here. There's several hundred people milling about in the terminal," passenger Graham Sheldon told KHOU.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are heading up the investigation into the collision.