Flight was transporting patient
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A pilot, flight nurse, flight paramedic, patient and the patient’s family member were killed in a Care Flight plane crash Friday night near Stagecoach, according to REMSA Health.
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said it began receiving multiple calls around 9:15 p.m. of a possible aircraft crash in Stagecoach, about 25 miles southeast of Reno. Search and rescue teams from Lyon and Douglas counties responded.
REMSA Health identified the medical transport plane as a Pilatus PC 12 fixed-wing aircraft and said in a statement it went off the radar around 9:45 p.m. The plane was located around 11:15 p.m.
Barry Duplantis, CEO and president of REMSA Health, said in a statement his organization is grieving the loss and extended its deepest condolences to the families.
“Our REMSA Health and Care Flight team remains focused on our people and their families,” he said in the statement.
Duplantis said Central Lyon County Fire Department confirmed that none of the five people on board survived and that families have been notified.
“Our focus is and will remain on helping staff and colleagues, as well as their families, cope with this devastating news. We are asking that their privacy be respected,” Duplantis said in the statement.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday morning on Twitter it is sending a seven-member team of investigators to the crash site.
Guardian Flight is the official aviation vendor for Care Flight, a service of REMSA Health. The pilot involved was a Guardian Flight employee. The health care providers involved in this incident were Care Flight-REMSA Health employees.
Care Flight is headquartered in Reno, Guardian Flight in Utah.
Guardian Flight and Care Flight will follow a safety process where all their flights across the company will be in a passive stand down, according to a post on the REMSA Health Facebook page.
On Saturday, Nevada State Police joined REMSA and several law enforcement and first responder agencies in a procession to escort the bodies of the five victims to the Medical Examiner’s office.
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 65 mph and periods of whiteout conditions between 4 a.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.