Glider plane makes emergency landing at Heavenly
Updated Feb. 5 at 8:40pm.
By Kathryn Reed
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.
Cool! Would have loved to have been there!
Haha, I remember looking up and seeing the glider. It was flying really low then it almost hit some snowboarder who was on the run. He ended up ducking just in time.
Do you all realize this guy landed on first ride? On a Sunday afternoon this is where lots of local 4 and 5 year olds are in the comet program. This could have been a horrible tragedy, thank god it wasn’t. The company should not be allowed near heavenly.
Young at Heart, I think we should make Heavenly a total no fly zone. Ban all planes, helicopters, space craft ect from the area. Better yet, lets close and dismantle all the lifts, people are falling off them and getting hurt. And while we are at it, lets ban all snowboards and skis. People are sliding on frozen water, falling and hurting themselves and crashing into others and hurting them. Where will it end?
Thanks for the constructive comment Steven. I hope your kids and/or grandkids are all happy, healthy and safe today and far away from reckless, low iq people like this pilot.
Young at Heart, you are no less reckless than the pilots involved for sending your kids to participate in hazardous sport like skiing. And if your iq was as high as the pilots involved, you would have realized they choose to land there since it was not crowded and they could put it down safely without hurting anyone.
I find it interesting that when a small airplane has a mechanical problem and lands on a highway, the headline reads “airplane lands on highway”. When this glider landed on a ski run sans damage or injuries, the headline reads “glider crashes”. Why the difference?
The word “crash” does not exist in the either of the two stories on Lake Tahoe News about this incident or in the headlines for the stories.
So, maybe you should complain somewhere else.
Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher
Sorry… my post wasn’t a complaint it was an observation, and I see that your site didn’t use the word crash. I had looked at several other sites before I arrived at yours and did see the crash word in a couple of places. I apologize for the mistake, and thanks for bringing it to my attention.