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Medevac PC-12 Down Near Reno, 5 Dead

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PHXPhlyer
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Medevac PC-12 Down Near Reno, 5 Dead

#1 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Feb 25, 2023 2:59 pm

5 dead in Care Flight plane crash in Lyon County

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2023/02/ ... 943520007/

A Care Flight medical transport plane carrying a patient and four others crashed Friday night near Stagecoach in Lyon County, Nevada. All five people on board were killed.

The Lyon County Sheriff's Office said dispatch received several calls starting around 9:15 p.m. Lyon County deputies, Central Lyon County Fire and search-and-rescue units from Lyon and Douglas counties responded to search the area. At approximately 11:15 pm, the aircraft was located.

The Central Lyon County Fire Department confirmed there were no survivors.

The five people on board were a pilot, a flight nurse, a flight paramedic, a patient and a patient's family member. In a statement released at 12:45 a.m. Saturday, REMSA said family members of the victims were being notified.

Care Flight is a service of REMSA Health in Reno and Guardian Flight, headquartered in Utah.

Stagecoach is about 45 miles southeast of Reno on U.S. 50.

The Central Lyon Fire Department and Lyon County Sheriff’s Department are coordinating with the National Transportation Safety Board to determine the cause of the crash.

Care Flight said it is halting all flights across the company and will work with each of its operations to determine when it will return to service.

Care Flight plane was Pilatus
According to the FAA, the plane was a Pilatus PC-12/45 fixed-wing single-engine turboprop made in 2002 and registered to Guardian Flight, based in South Jordan, Utah.

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Re: Medevac PC-12 Down Near Reno, 5 Dead

#2 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Sat Feb 25, 2023 3:39 pm

I note the cause of the 2017 crash was somatogravic illusion, night IMC, moderate turbulence, not long after takeoff.
https://www.aviation-safety.net/wikibase/195094

I lost a friend in California in the late '90s flying medevac.
Cause was probably somatogravic illusion, night IMC, moderate turbulence, not long after takeoff.

It would appear this latest one may fit the same bill. A quick look at the METARs would seem to show night IMC.

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Re: Medevac PC-12 Down Near Reno, 5 Dead

#3 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Feb 25, 2023 10:51 pm

5 dead in Care Flight plane crash in Lyon County
Peggy Santoro
Amy Alonzo
Reno Gazette Journal

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2023/02/ ... 943520007/




REMSA Health has scheduled a news conference at 3 p.m. today at its headquarters in Reno on the fatal Care Flight crash. The Reno Gazette Journal will be reporting on the updates.This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Stagecoach resident, a former flight nurse, heard sputtering plane fly over house before crashing
When Robin Hays heard a single-engine plane buzz her house just before crashing behind her stagecoach property, she knew it wasn’t good.

A former flight nurse herself, she was reminded of the years she’d spent flying in inclement weather.

“It’s a calculated risk,” she said. “Aeromedicine is inherently dangerous.”

She was dozing on her couch Friday night when she heard a low hum that crescendoed into a loud popping noise. From experience, she knew it was the sound of a plane backfiring.

She heard sputtering, then more backfire.

“I knew the plane was in trouble,” she said. Her house rattled as it flew over. “I knew it was going to crash. I was just hoping it wasn’t going to crash into my house.”

She picked up her phone to call 911. Before dispatch could answer, she heard a large whump.

Then, silence.

She threw on snow clothes, rallied her kids, and headed into the storm.

She never saw the plane, despite walking within 20 or 30 feet of it, due to the blowing snow.

Original story:

A Care Flight medical transport plane carrying a patient and four others crashed Friday night in Lyon County, Nevada. All five people on board were killed.

The flight had taken off from Reno and was on the way to Salt Lake City when it went down, according to air traffic control communications. The plane crashed just north of Seneca Road in Stagecoach, a sparsely populated rural community of about 2,500 people on U.S. 50. Stagecoach is about 45 miles southeast of Reno.

The Lyon County Sheriff's Office said dispatch received several calls starting around 9:15 p.m. Lyon County deputies, Central Lyon County Fire and search-and-rescue units from Lyon and Douglas counties responded to search the area. At approximately 11:15 pm, the aircraft was located.

Authorities investigate the site of a Care Flight plane that crashed near Stagecoach on Feb. 25, 2023. Five people were killed in the crash.
The Central Lyon County Fire Department confirmed there were no survivors.

The five people on board were a pilot, a flight nurse, a flight paramedic, a patient and the patient's family member. In a statement released at 12:45 a.m. Saturday, REMSA said family members of the victims were being notified.

Care Flight is a service of REMSA Health in Reno and Guardian Flight headquartered in Utah.

The Central Lyon Fire Department and Lyon County Sheriff’s Department are coordinating with the National Transportation Safety Board to determine the cause of the crash. Local personnel directed all inquiries to the NTSB. The Reno Gazette Journal reached out for comment but has not received a reply.

In a Saturday morning tweet, the NTSB said it is sending a seven-member go-team today to Stagecoach. The team is expected to arrive tonight.


The NTSB will be holding a press conference Sunday.

Care Flight said it is halting all flights across the company and will work with each of its operations to determine when it will return to service.

Watching the rescue operation
The wind was howling and the snow blowing hard when Misty Gruenemay heard what sounded like a whiz and a thump behind her Stagecoach house.

She and her husband stepped outside, thinking perhaps there had been a car accident on Highway 50, but couldn’t see anything due to heavy blowing snow.

Minutes later, a message from a friend popped up on her phone saying there had been a plane crash in the area.

Authorities investigate the site of a Care Flight plane that crashed near Stagecoach on Feb. 25, 2023. Five people were killed in the crash.
By 10 p.m., Gruenemay could see search lights and lights from emergency vehicles behind her 40-acre property.

She wanted to help but conditions were terrible, and she didn’t have a vehicle that could safely travel the unpaved roads buried in 6 inches of snow. She said the conditions were the worst she'd ever seen in the area.

“Those people were out in the cold,” she said of the five who died in the crash. “I was watching it before they even found the plane.”

Seeing the conditions last night, she’s shocked the plane was in the air.

"It was snowing and visibility was horrible. I don’t even understand why that plane was allowed to take off,” she said.

Care Flight plane was Pilatus
According to the FAA, the plane was a Pilatus PC-12/45 fixed-wing single-engine turboprop made in 2002 and registered to Guardian Flight, based in South Jordan, Utah.
More than half a million medical patients use air ambulance services each month in the U.S., the National Association of Insurance Commissioners says on its website.

Both helicopters and airplanes are used to transport patients in life-threatening situations.

Medical planes and helicopters can get patients to hospitals faster than traditional ambulances. But aircraft, especially helicopters, are more susceptible to bad weather compared to on-the-ground vehicles, according to providers at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio.

At the time of the flight, visibility was under two miles with a cloud ceiling about 2,000 feet above ground, according to the National Weather Service. It was also snowing steadily in the area. Winds were around 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph from the north/northeast. Investigators have not said if weather was a factor in the crash.

YouTube channel FSX Aviation posted a recording of communications between the pilot and air traffic control:


In the Reno area there was a forecast for moderate icing, turbulence and instrument flight rules from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., according to Jonathan Leffler, chief of the domestic operations branch at the Aviation Weather Center. Based in Kansas City, the center provides weather information and forecasts for flights over the United States.

Instrument flight rules forecasts are issued when there is less than 1,000 vertical feet between clouds and the ground and visibility of less than three miles.

Icing can create additional drag on an aircraft and impede airflow, according to Leffler.

“Knowing if they are going to get into icing conditions is critical,” he said.

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Re: Medevac PC-12 Down Near Reno, 5 Dead

#4 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Sat Feb 25, 2023 11:22 pm

Weird flightpath.
No oxygen?
Timing seems about right after climbing through 15,000 ft - wandering about before the final spiral. Pilot seems perfectly alert and relaxed at FL154

If not hypoxia, I see the mod turb is there too.

The aircraft doesn't look to be under anything but occasional vague control from about 3 minutes after the last transmission to Oakland Center.
It's about 3 more minutes to the crash.
A sudden stroke or similar might also explain the vague flightpath, and the lack of a further (emergency) radio call

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Re: Medevac PC-12 Down Near Reno, 5 Dead

#5 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Feb 27, 2023 1:48 am

NTSB says medical plane apparently broke apart before crash
Authorities say a medical transport flight that crashed in northern Nevada, killing all five people aboard including a patient, apparently broke apart.

https://www.12news.com/article/news/nat ... 05bd67298d

STAGECOACH, Nev. — A medical transport flight that crashed in a mountainous area in northern Nevada, killing five all five people aboard the plane including a patient, apparently broke apart before hitting the ground, authorities said Sunday.

The National Transportation Safety Board has sent in a seven-member team of investigators to the site of Friday night’s crash near Stagecoach.

“How do we know if the airplane broke up in flight? We found parts of the airplane one-half to three-quarters of a mile away” from the crash scene, NTSB Vice Chair Bruce Landsberg said at a news briefing in Carson City.

Landsberg said in the afternoon briefing that a team spent all day looking for pieces of the downed plane. He added investigators would likely be on site for several days before the wreckage of the single-engine Pilatus PC-12 is moved so investigators can try to determine a possible crash cause. The plane was built in 2002.

“Right now, we just don't know. This is like a three dimensional puzzle,” Landsberg said. “It's harder when you don't have the pieces all in one place.”

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. It was snowing steadily with winds around 20 mph (30 kph) and gusts up to 30 mph (50 kph).

Visibility was under two miles (3.2 kilometers) with a cloud ceiling about 2,000 feet (600 meters) above ground when the flight left Reno for Salt Lake City, Utah, and went down, according to the weather service.

Care Flight, which provides ambulance service by plane and helicopter, identified the downed aircraft and said the pilot, a flight nurse, a flight paramedic, a patient and a patient’s family member all died.

Robin Hays, a Stagecoach resident and a former flight nurse, said she heard the sputtering plane fly over her house before crashing behind her property.

“I knew the plane was in trouble,” Hays told the Reno Gazette Journal. “I knew it was going to crash. I was just hoping it wasn’t going to crash into my house.”

Hays called 911 and went outside but could not see the wreckage because of the blowing snow.

Misty Gruenemay told the newspaper that the wind was howling and the snow blowing hard when she heard what sounded like a whiz and a thump behind her house in Stagecoach. The rural community is home to around 2,500 residents and located about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Reno.

Gruenemay said she wanted to help but conditions were terrible and she didn’t have a vehicle that could safely travel the unpaved roads buried in 6 inches of snow.

“It was snowing and visibility was horrible. I don’t even understand why that plane was allowed to take off,” Gruenemay said.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s office said authorities began receiving calls about the crash near Stagecoach, Nevada, around 9:15 p.m. and found the wreckage two hours later.

Care Flight officials said it was halting all flights and will work with each of its operations to determine when it will return to service.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane was registered to Guardian Flight, based in South Jordan, Utah. Care Flight is a service of REMSA Health in Reno and Guardian Flight.

More than half a million medical patients use air ambulance services each month in the U.S., according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ website.

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Re: Medevac PC-12 Down Near Reno, 5 Dead

#6 Post by G~Man » Mon Feb 27, 2023 3:43 am

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Mon Feb 27, 2023 1:48 am
NTSB says medical plane apparently broke apart before crash
PP
Interesting... It is ironic that most website forums I have frequented blamed disorientation, new relief pilot to the area etc.

I have flown many fires in this area between Battle Mountain and Reno... It is typical "basin & range" terrain, nothing that complicated in terms of mountain flying. In reality, I used this area as a training ground many years ago for new pilots.

I get it, the weather was not the best the other night.

I will be interested in the final outcome of this one.
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Re: Medevac PC-12 Down Near Reno, 5 Dead

#7 Post by Ex-Ascot » Mon Feb 27, 2023 6:20 am

Yes indeed an interesting one. Our main Aeromed operation here operate a PC-12. They always have two pilots though. Their Chief Pilot is a friend. Ex Flt Eng Italian Air Force. He ferried it from Canada to here. Their head quack went with him. I told her that she was crazy. Her husband owns the operation. Germans! We suspect that he is German aristocracy.

Interesting choice of route and airports. Almost exactly the way we took the 748 to Canada and down to here. They did deviate slightly to visit friends and family in Germany and Italy.
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