Three killed when plane crashes on cloud-seeding mission

Scott Sonner

Monday, April 17, 2000 | 2:53 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - A twin-engine airplane on a cloud-seeding mission crashed just after taking off today at the Stead Airport north of Reno, killing all three people on board.

The fatal crash occurred before 11 a.m. about one mile north of the Stead airport, said John Doherty, a spokesman for the University of Nevada's Desert Research Institute.

An engine on the Navy surplus plane failed just after take off from the Stead Airport, which is about five miles north of Reno and home to the city's annual air races, he said.

The institute contracted for the use of the plane with Advanced Aviation of Reno for a cloud-seeding mission in the Sierra Nevada south of Lake Tahoe, he said.

The names of the victims have not been released. Doherty said they are Advanced Aviation employees, and not with the research institute.

Adam Mayberry, a spokesman for the Washoe County Airport Authority, confirmed that all three on board died in the crash.

Witnesses reported the plane was in trouble and made an attempt to return to the airport before crashing, Mayberry said.

The airport has no control tower.

The Federal Aviation Administration was on its way to investigate, Mayberry said.

The Desert Research Institute typically seeds clouds during Sierra storms to increase snowfall and build water supplies for the summer irrigation season.

It's the first fatal plane accident involving a cloud-seeding mission in Nevada since 1980. Doherty said the institute lost two pilots and two scientists in that crash.

The victims included research engineer Peter Wagner, the husband of former state Assemblywoman, Sen. and Lt. Gov. Sue Wagner.

Also killed were the pilot, John Lapham, a former board chairman of the Reno National Championship Air Races; William Gaskell, an assistant research professor, and co-pilot Gordon F. Wicksten.

The B-26 Temop II plane left the Stead Airport on March 2, 1980, on a research mission and crashed in a ball of fire near Bald Mountain in the Sierra southwest of Lake Tahoe.