With hundreds of weekend skiers on the slopes, a glider crash landed on a ski run at Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe on Sunday, with the pilot and passenger having walked away unhurt in the crash. No one else was injured.
El Dorado County authorities report the incident happened at 1:26 p.m. near the front of the First Run area of the California Lodge of the Lake Tahoe resort, which straddles the California and Nevada border.
A spokesman for Minden-Tahoe Airport based Soaring NV, said the pilot was flying a Duo Discus aircraft and lost altitude and was forced to land. The pilot is experienced and was doing a flight review, the spokesman said. The pilot and passenger were unhurt, he said.
Heavenly Mountain Resort spokesman Russ Pecoraro called the incident "irresponsible."
"We're outraged that something like this could happen. We're glad that everyone came out of this okay, but there's no excuse for this kind of irresponsible behavior," Pecoraro said in an email. "We'll do everything in our power to make sure this doesn't happen again. We're extremely lucky no one was hurt today."
El Dorado County authorities interviewed the pair who explained what happened.
"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," said Greg Almos, El Dorado County Sheriff's Office deputy.
Though the glider came down there was reportedly not much damage to it. It may be up and running again this week, the spokesman said.
Winds around South Lake Tahoe were reportedly calm.
According to a witness, a snowboarder dove to avoid the wings clipping him. And another witness, Kouri Penn said that it looked as if the pilot was performing a stunt.
"He was so low over our heads we thought it was supposed to be that way," Penn said. "He went really low into the hill, took the incline with the left wing into the hill and immediately did a 180 degree turn, and came to a complete stop...after it happened, I watched everyone get out and knew it wasn't a stunt."

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