Firefighting plane makes emergency landing at Minden-Tahoe Airport; 2 dead in Utah desert tanker crash
Submitted by Editor on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 5:03pm
A fire bomber air tanker owned by Minden Air Corp, made a successful emergency landing on its belly today at the Minden-Tahoe Airport in Carson Valley.
According to Douglas County authorities, the plane's landing gear would not deploy. Meanwhile, two are dead after an P-2V tanker aircraft fighting a Nevada fired crashed in Utah near the southern Nevada border on Sunday afternoon, KOLO Channel 8 Reno reports.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval released the following statement: "The thoughts and prayers of all Nevadans are with the firefighters, the plane crews and all of their families.”
Here is the statement from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office regarding the plane that landed Sunday afternoon at the Minden-Tahoe Airport.
On Sunday, June 3rd, 2013, at approximately 1:50 pm, personnel from the East Fork Fire and Paramedic Districts and Douglas County Sheriff's Office responded to the Minden-Tahoe airport for a report of an inbound firefighting aircraft tanker that was unable to lower all of it’s landing gear. Tanker 55, a Lockheed P2V, reported it was unable to lower 1 of 3 landing gear. The pilot of the plane circled the plane in the area for approx 1-1/2 hours to burn off fuel before attempting an emergency landing. The pilot ultimately landed the plane on a cleared runway at the airport at approx 3:30 pm. Due to the malfunction with the landing gear, the plane slid off the side of the main runway. No injuries were reported by the two person crew, however the plane sustained significant damage. The plane is owned by Minden Air, a local business based at the Minden-Tahoe Airport.
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