5 killed in small plane crash in northern Nevada

— A small plane crashed Saturday in a pasture near the northern Nevada town of Gardnerville, killing all five people aboard, sheriff's deputies said.

Douglas County sheriff's Sgt. Jim Halsey said the twin-engine Beechcraft BE95 went down at 4:10 p.m., about 10 minutes after taking off from the nearby Minden Tahoe Airport.

The four men and one woman aboard were pronounced dead at the scene about 50 miles south of Reno and three miles west of Gardnerville, he said. Their names were not immediately released.

Witnesses told authorities that the plane appeared to be flying normally before it nose-dived into the ground.

"We heard the plane and it seemed low and loud," witness Douglas Bradshaw told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "It appears they were buzzing the area."

Witnesses said they didn't hear any unusual noises or see any parts separate from the plane before the crash.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the pilot didn't file a flight plan and it was uncertain where the plane was heading. It crashed about 12 miles from the airport.

The cause of the crash is under investigation by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board.

FAA investigators were expected to arrive at the scene Sunday, Gregor said.

The crash occurred in the rural Carson Valley along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

It was windy and hazy at the time of the crash, Halsey said.


