FAA: 3 Dead After Planes Collide in Colo

Play CBS Video Video Deadly Plane Collision Aftermath

• "Caught on Tape": A plane towing a glider and another aircraft collided in Colorado, sending the two planes crashing into the ground and killing at least 3 people.

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  An airplane towing a glider and another plane collided in Colorado, sending the two planes crashing into the ground and killing at least three people Saturday afternoon, authorities said. (KCNC/Marc Steinbrecher/YouReport)

(CBS/AP) Updated at 8:13 p.m. ET

An airplane towing a glider and another plane collided in Colorado, sending the two planes crashing into the ground and killing at least three people Saturday afternoon, authorities said.

One of the aircraft clipped the towline of a plane that had been pulling a glider, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

(Scroll down to watch video from CBS News Station KCNC-TV in Denver of one of the planes falling after the collision)

The glider disconnected from the plane just before the second plane hit the tow rope, Boulder County sheriff's office spokesman Rick Brough said.

"The two planes did collide, they caught fire midair and fell to the ground," he said.

The glider landed safely - with no injuries to anyone on board - at a nearby airport just after the planes made impact, authorities said.

An amateur video shot at the scene showed a plane on fire, floating to the ground trailing thick, black smoke and a parachute.

Witnesses reported smoldering wreckage in at least three areas on the prairie north of Boulder, which sits at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

One witness, Christian Sterner, said he saw two big balls of flames, including one attached to a parachute that fell slowly to the ground.

CBS Radio News reports that witnesses heard a booming explosion before seeing fiery plane parts hit the ground.

Aquina Rogers, a worker at a storage facility in the area, told The Associated Press she could see a wing in one of the wreckage fields.

Brough said the parachute was designed to assist one of the aircrafts and was attached to plane wreckage, not a pilot or passenger.

NTSB field investigator Jennifer Rodi said the accident happened three miles northwest of Boulder Municipal Airport at about 1:30 p.m.

"We understand the glider went through a fireball after the impact," she said.

The three dead came from both of the planes that crashed, Brough said. Authorities we're trying to confirm how many people were flying in the planes.