All five occupants of a medical transport aircraft that crashed in the western US state of Nevada perished, according to the plane’s operator on Saturday.
According to a statement from REMSA Health, the aircraft vanished from radar Friday evening outside the arid town of Stagecoach, close to Nevada’s border with California.
“We are heartbroken to report that we have now received confirmation from Central Lyon County Fire Department that none of the five people on board survived,” the statement said.
REMSA Health reported that in addition to the pilot, the aircraft was transporting a nurse, a paramedic, a patient, and a patient’s family member.
Although the specifics of the accident are still unknown, it took place as a powerful winter storm pounded the US west coast, dropping feet of snow in the high mountains and even blanketing typically warm areas in southern California.
According to the PowerOutage.us tracker, almost 100,000 customers in California were without electricity on Saturday night.
Inaccessible sections of Interstate 5, the major north-south road linking Mexico, California, the Pacific Northwest, and Canada, were also closed due to ice and snow.
