RENO, Nev. — The order for a firefighting air tanker to drop retardant on a blaze in California was canceled at about the same time the plane crashed while taking off from an airport north of Reno, killing three, officials said Tuesday.
At least one person who saw the plane taking off Monday evening said an engine was on fire before the crash, but investigators said they had not confirmed that.
The Lockheed P2V-7 aircraft had been dispatched to fight a fire in California’s Calaveras County on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada. But the tanker was no longer needed and was recalled around the time it went down at 6:11 p.m., shortly after taking off from Reno-Stead airport, said Marnie Bonesteel, spokeswoman with the Sierra Front Wildfire Cooperators.
All three crew members were killed — bringing to 27 the number of deaths in fatal crashes of firefighting air tankers in the U.S since 1991.
The names of the victims were being withheld until relatives could be notified.
“By the time those folks took off, they were canceled,” Bonesteel said Tuesday.
Christie Kalkowski, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service’s Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, said the agency was “working on that timeline — trying to figure out exactly what the chronology was.”
The fire in West Point, Calif., was fully contained at 50 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s website.
Another air tanker also sent to that fire was canceled en route and returned to the airport in Minden, 50 miles south of Reno, Bonesteel said.
The plane owned by Neptune Aviation of Missoula, Mont., and built in 1962 was one of 12 the company had on contract with the Forest Service to fight fires.
It had made one flight over a different fire in California’s Hope Valley, south of Lake Tahoe, Monday morning and returned to the Stead airport, where it remained through the day until the fatal crash.
“They were fully fueled and did have a full load of retardant as well,” Bonesteel said.
Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration were on the scene Tuesday.
Witnesses reported seeing what appeared to be a piece of engine or wing fall from the aircraft before it caught fire and crashed about a half-mile from the runway, authorities said.
Casey Meaden, who lives near the airport, said she heard the plane and was watching it take off when she noticed the engine on the plane’s left side was on fire.
About 25 members of the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office search-and- rescue team were combing the runway and neighboring area Tuesday afternoon for any airplane parts or other clues that would help determine the cause of the crash, Deputy Darrin Rice said.
