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2 died in aircraft crash near Mount Rose ski resort; fire 95 percent contained

The Slide Fire broke out on Sunday, Sept. 2.
Courtesy of US Forest Service
UPDATE

Authorities in Reno say two people died in the weekend crash of a glider aircraft that apparently sparked a wildfire that officials had feared might climb a steep and scenic slope toward the Mount Rose Ski Tahoe resort.

The Reno Gazette Journal reports the Washoe County medical examiner’s office was trying Tuesday to identify the victims of the Sunday afternoon crash on Slide Mountain.

The bodies were retrieved by a Washoe County sheriff’s office helicopter.



Truckee Tahoe Airport official Hardy Bullock told the newspaper the glider had taken off from the California airport north of Lake Tahoe.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash.



Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest spokeswoman Erica Hupp says the wildfire grew to 64 acres (26 hectares) but was 95 percent contained by Tuesday.

Original Story A wildfire believed to be caused by a deadly aircraft crash broke out Sunday afternoon, Sept. 2, on the Carson Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest near Mount Rose — Ski Tahoe. The brush and timber fueled, Slide Fire, has grown to 80 acres as of 9:29 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 3, according to the US Forest Service, and is 10 percent contained. Ian Gregor, public affairs manager with the Federal Aviation Administration, said in an email to the forest service, that an unidentified aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances in the area where the fire occurred. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office later confirmed a single death as the result of a small recreational aircraft going down in the area. The sheriff’s office also reported its RAVEN helicopter crew, detectives, and HASTY volunteers were assisting the Federal Aviation Administration in the ongoing investigation. The fire is 1 mile southeast of Mount Rose’s Winters Creek Lodge in the resort’s Slide Bowl area. The forest service reported that 160 personnel have been onsite during the day, along with eight engines and four helicopters. This post will be updated.


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