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Breaking News

Two Planes Collide in Midair Over Southern Germany

Aired July 01, 2002 - 19:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN BREAKING NEWS.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm Anderson Cooper in New York. We have some breaking news this evening. Within the last hour two planes apparently collided midair over southern Germany, the Lake Constance region. Information is still coming in, so we do not have all the information.

There is no word yet on any fatalities. We do not know how many passengers were aboard these planes. One plane, what we do know, one plane, a Russian made Tupolev 154. It's got a seating capacity of 164 people.

Again, we do not know how many people if any, were aboard the plane.

The other plane was a Boeing 757, obviously an American-made plane, seating capacity over 200 people. That is a single-engine -- a single-aisle plane. The reports at this point point to some sort of midair collision. One witness tells German TV that he saw two big balls of fire in the sky over Southern Germany. Another said he saw bodies in the streets of his town.

There is a report saying police saw burning wreckage and that the burning wreckage caused serious damage as it fell to the ground, setting a school, a farm and some houses on fire. One report says two bodies were found in the streets in the city of Constance. But, again, we do not know how many passengers were aboard those planes.

Stay with CNN. This is a breaking story, and we will be follow it all evening long. Stay with CNN. We will go back to regular programming in just a few moments.

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