A photo shows a glider that made an emergency landing at Heavenly Mountain Resort Sunday afternoon.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — A glider was forced to make an emergency landing on a ski run at Heavenly Mountain Resort Sunday afternoon. No injuries were reported.
The SoaringNV aircraft encountered unexpected downdraft and had to land, said Laurie Harden, a spokeswoman for the company.
“Sometimes right against some lift, you can have some sink,” Harden said.
Heavenly did not immediately return a call for comment.
The choice to land on the ski run was made by pilot Jeffrey Hazelgrove after realizing the glider was too low to make it to Lake Tahoe Airport or the Bijou Golf Course, Harden said. In addition to Hazelgrove, two passengers were aboard the craft.
The pilot chose the ski run, rather than crash-land in the trees, because there were few people on the strip of snow and he deemed it the safest place, Harden said.
“Had the slope had people on it, he would've put that glider in the trees,” she said.
Hazelgrove has more than 12,000 glider flights and decades of experience, Harden said. The glider launched from Minden-Tahoe Airport. It was removed from the Heavenly ski slope Sunday.
No investigation is underway by the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office, Lt. Les Lovell said Monday.
“There was no ill intent,” Lovell said. “I guess he did the best he could to pick a spot that was as unpopulated as possible.”
A glider plane made an unexpected landing at Heavenly Mountain Resort on Sunday afternoon.
There are no reports of injuries.
“We had one of our instructors with an experienced pilot on a flight review who got on the wrong side of the mountain and had to land,” Dan Schuler with Soaring NV out of Minden told Lake Tahoe News. The company operates the glider business out of the Minden Tahoe Airport.
Winds were calm to almost non-existent Feb. 5.
Schuler said he was not permitted to release the names of the people involved. He did say no one was injured.
A witness told Lake Tahoe News when she was on the Nevada side of Heavenly she saw the glider disengage from the plane as is normal. But then she got to the California side just after 1pm and the plane was landing near the beginner lift by the California Lodge.
No one from Heavenly returned phone calls.
A dispatcher with El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department said the U.S. Forest Service is handling the case. The Forest Service said the incident was on private property.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration could not be reached Sunday.
http://www.laketahoenews.net
A glider reportedly crashed near Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe this afternoon. A witness reports the pilot and passenger walked away from the crash, which apparently happened at around 1 p.m. near Gunbarrel at Heavenly.
A spokesman for Minden-Tahoe Airport based Soaring NV, said the pilot was flying a Duo Discus aircraft and lost altitude and had to land. The pilot is an experienced glider pilot and was doing a flight review, the spokesman said. The pilot and passenger were unhurt, he said. El Dorado County Sheriff's Office personnel and fire and rescue teams were dispatched to the scene.
Though the glider came down but there was reportedly not much damage to it. It may be up and running again this week, the spokesman said.
Winds around South Lake Tahoe have been reportedly calm.
According to a witness, a snowboarder dove to avoid the wings clipping him. There was a report of a need for a CalStar helicopter to the scene, however it is not known if it is for the glider crash or for a ski or snowboard related accident. A patient was taken by ground to Barton Memorial Hospital, according to the police scanner. It is not known if the patient is in any way related to the glider accident.
Source: http://carsonnow.org
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