On Jan. 20, five people were killed after two private planes collided in midair in the afternoon in southern California, authorities said.

The two aircraft collided at 3:35 p.m. local time (23:35GMT) near the Corona Municipal airport, about 72 km southeast of Los Angeles, according to Ian Gregor, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The debris of the planes fell on car dealerships below. The police were checking the dealerships to make sure everyone was accounted for.

Two people on board the plane were killed, and falling debris killed three more on the ground, according to local media reports.

Allen Kenitzer, spokesman for FAA, said the Corona airport did not have a staffed control tower and that he could not figure out immediately the course of either plane and whether any distress signals were ever sent out.

The FAA said the cause of the collision remained unknown.

"The smaller aircraft ... just disintegrated into pieces, maybe 50 pieces coming down," said Jeff Hardin, a witness. "The other aircraft pretty much stayed intact and started spiraling down," a witness told KABC-TV.

The local KABC-TV station showed footage of the smashed fuselage of one of the planes landing atop a parked car.