Plane Crash in Mountains Near Truckee, CA Kills One, Injures One

Watch a news video report about this crash here:

Plane Crash News Reel

A small plane headed from Santa Ana, CA to Truckee, CA crashed in the mountains 6 miles from the Truckee Airport on Monday, March 3rd, 2014.  One 55-year-old woman was killed in the crash while her 70-year-old husband survived and was taken to the hospital.  Both of the people in the accident were from Tahoe City, CA.

The plane was a A Piper PA-46 Malibu and it crashed at 11 a.m. near Martis Peak, about six miles southeast of the Truckee airport.

Oakland Air Traffic Control informed the Truckee Sheriff’s Office about the wreck at 11am on Monday.  A CHP helicopter was able to spot the wreckage at 11:55am.  The plane was in about 4 to 5 feet of snow in mountainous terrain.  Official’s used snowmobiles to reach the downed plane at 1pm.

Small plane crashes in the Sierra Nevada are very common.  The Sierra Nevada is considered the Bermuda Triangle of the West Coast…

Nevada’s Civil Air Patrol estimates that there are up to 200 uncharted plane wrecks currently hidden in the Sierra Nevada.

Small planes are statistically unsafe:

Currently, there are approximately 228,000 active private pilots and 220,000 registered general aviation aircraft in the United States; 93% of the aircraft are planes, 4% are rotor- craft, and 3% are nonmotorized craft such as gliders.

From 2002 through 2005, general aviation, with an annual average of 1,685 crashes and 583 deaths, comprised 91% of all aviation-crashes and 94% of aviation.

The crash rate for general aviation, 1.31 fatal crashes per 100,000 flight hours, is 82 times the rate for major airlines.

–Bureau of Transportation Statistics