Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Woman dies, husband survives small-plane crash

Updated Tuesday, March 4, 2014 | 12:38 p.m.

TRUCKEE, Calif. — Rescuers say a woman died and her husband was critically injured when a single-engine plane crashed a few miles from California's Truckee Tahoe Airport.

Placer County sheriff's Capt. Jeff Ausnow says 70-year-old Ray Richard Farnell, the pilot, was hospitalized in Reno Monday night, and his wife, 55-year-old Darla Sue Farnell, was pronounced dead at the scene. He says the couple were from Tahoe City. Ausnow tells the Reno Gazette-Journal that a California Highway Patrol helicopter spotted wreckage around 11:50 a.m.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer says the Piper PA-46 Malibu took off from Santa Ana. Ausnow says it went down in a rugged area about 6 miles southeast of the airport.

It was unknown why the plane crashed.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

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