A medical transport flight that crashed in Nevada on Friday, killing all five people onboard, appears to have broken apart mid-air, investigators say.
The fixed-wing Pilatus PC-12 aircraft operated by air ambulance company Care Flight had been transporting a patient from Reno to Salt Lake City when it crashed in a mountainous area of northern Nevada at about 9.45pm on Friday, the Associated Press reported.
Among the five who died was paramedic and new father Ryan Watson, 27, who had welcomed his first child Carter with wife Kailey on 19 January, according to a GoFundme page.
Scott Walton, the 46-year-old pilot; nurse Edward Pricola, 32; patient Mark Rand, 69; and his wife Terri Rand, 66, both of Reno, were named as the other fatalities by the Washoe County coroner’s office.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent a team of seven investigators to the crash site near Stagecoach, about 45 miles east of Reno.
At a press conference on Sunday, NTSB Vice Chair Bruce Landsberg said that the team had spent the day recovering pieces of the downed plane.
“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” he said, according to the AP.
Investigators were still trying to determine the cause of the crash, he added.
“This is like a three dimensional puzzle,” he said. “It’s harder when you don’t have the pieces all in one place.”
Friday’s crash occurred after the National Weather Service had issued a snow alert for large parts of Nevada, including Lyon County, where the plane came down.
Steady snow, poor visibility and wind gusts of up to 30mph (50kms) were reported in the area, the wether service said.
Stagecoach resident Robin Hays, herself a former flight nurse, told the Reno Gazette Journal she heard a loud popping sound come from the plane that sounded like it was backfiring.
That was followed by sputtering and another backfire.
She told the Gazette Journal she called 911 and before the dispatcher answered, she heard a loud thud as part of the plane hit the ground.
Family and friends have set up fundraising pages for each of the victims, with hundreds of dollars being raised.
