Witnesses Say Snowboarder Narrowly Missed

A glider pilot made a forced landing near the First Run at Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe Sunday afternoon. A spokesman for Soaring NV, based at the Minden-Tahoe Airport (KMEV), told a contributor to Carson Now the aircraft was a Duo Discus (file photo of similar aircraft), and the experienced pilot was on a flight review. While sensationalized in media reports as a "crash," the forced landing reportedly produced no injuries and little or no damage to the plane.

Greg Almos, El Dorado County Sheriff's Office deputy, told Carson Now, "They were descending, lost air and were forced to come down on this side of the mountain and looked for a suitable place to put it down and explored their options, believing it would be the safest location."

While the outcome was fortunate, one witness told authorities a snowboarder had to dive to avoid being struck by a wing. Some Carson Now readers commented that the glider has been seen frequently of late over the resort, one writing, "I saw a glider doing a show over the sky patrol station two days before...at a low altitude obviously trying to show off 'glidergirl.com' which was spelled out on the glider bottom."

That URL leads to a video on the Soaring NV website promoting glider rides, but the narrative may now be out of date. A spokesperson identified as "the Glider Girl herself, Laurie Harden" says regarding safety, "We've had no incidents...we've always landed right back here on the runway..."

FMI: www.soaringnv.com/main.asp?pID=61