RENO, Nev. — A medical flight that crashed near Reno, Nevada Friday night was en route to Salt Lake City, and the Utah-based company that operated the flight has had multiple other fatal crashes in recent years.
The National Transportation Safety Board provided an update Sunday afternoon on their investigation into the crash, which resulted in five people's deaths.
NTSB vice chairman Bruce Landsberg said the flight departed the Reno International Airport around 9 a.m. and was heading for SLC International. The plane went down about 14 minutes after takeoff, near the town of Dayton.
“We’ll have a pretty good idea of ‘why,’ but right now we just don’t know,” said Landsberg.
There were five people on board, and none of them survived.
“The highest the flight obtained was just over 19,000 feet when radar noticed the aircraft was in a descending right turn,” he said.
The NTSB said the "Care Flight" was operated by Guardian Flight, a company based out of South Jordan, Utah. The company "specializes in the critical medical transport of patients" in "remote and rural settings," according to its website.
According to the NTSB, this is the third fatal incident in the past "several" years involving a Guardian-operated aircraft that the agency is investigating. The company reportedly operates approximately 60 aircraft.
In December 2022, a Guardian-operated flight went down off the coast of Hawaii, killing three people. Another Guardian flight crashed in January 2019 in Alaska, also killing three.
The NTSB also investigated another incident in Arizona where a pilot lost control. That resulted in no injuries.
Although the investigation is in preliminary stages, the NTSB confirmed Sunday that parts of the plane — a Pilatus PC-12 fixed-wing aircraft — broke up in the air. These parts included an outboard section of the right wing and a horizontal stabilizer on the tail.
The NTSB said they found parts scattered between half a mile and 3/4 mile from the wreckage, but they have not yet determined at what altitude it happened.
"There was no distress call at any point," said Landsberg.
Landsberg described the crash as “unusual.” Investigators are looking at all possibilities, with weather getting “very close scrutiny.”
“These planes are designed to fly in that type of weather condition,” he said.
The full 20-minute press conference can be viewed below:
