RENO (Nevada, US), Feb 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Five people on board a medical plane were all killed after the plane crashed in the southwestern US state of Nevada, authorities said on Saturday.
Care Flight, a program of the Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority (REMSA), said in a news release that a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft went off radar Friday at approximately 9:45 pm local time near Stagecoach, Nevada.
The five people on board were a pilot, a flight nurse, a flight paramedic, a patient and a patient’s family member, according to the news release.
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the Lyon County Dispatch Center received multiple calls about a possible aircraft crash in Stagecoach Friday night and the plane was located by search and rescue teams later.
The sheriff’s office said they have been coordinating with National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to determine the cause of the crash.
A seven-member team of investigators, traveling from various locations, will arrive in Nevada by Saturday night to investigate the cause of the crash, said NTSB.
Barry Duplantis, president and CEO of the company, said that relatives of all five victims had been notified, the Reno Gazette Journal reported. “We send our deepest condolences to their families,” Duplantis said.
The crash occurred amid a winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service in Reno for large swaths of Nevada, including parts of Lyon County.
The weather service said it was expecting heavy snow, wind gusts of up to 105 kph and periods of whiteout conditions between 4 a.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Sunday.
“It’s a pretty mountainous region,” Lyon County Sgt. Nathan Cooper said. “Especially with the weather being the way it is right now, it’s not very good.”
Care Flight identified the downed aircraft as a Pilatus PC-12 airplane. Federal Aviation Administration records show the aircraft was manufactured in 2002.
The company said in a statement that it is halting flights to focus on helping responding agencies, team members and the families. — NNN-AGENCIES
