Plane that crashed at Reno Divide taken out of the area

Helicopter rescues the plane that was saved by a parachute

The Cirrus SR-22 aircraft that had a soft crash landing on the top of Reno Divide on Valentine’s Day—thanks to a parachute that is one of the plane’s safety features—has been taken to Phoenix. A recovery team came into town and lifted the plane out of Reno by helicopter on Sunday, February 23. It was then taken to a Buckhorn subdivision cul-de-sac near the Crested Butte airport, where it was dismantled, put on a trailer and driven to Arizona.

Ric Ems was the search and rescue team leader who found the pilot who crashed the plane. Ems advised the extraction team on the location of the wreck. He said the whole operation lasted about three hours.
“Rampart Helicopter Services out of Castle Rock came in and ‘long-lined’ the plane from Reno Divide to Buckhorn. It was pretty impressive to see. They flew around near Doubletop Mountain to avoid any houses.” he said.
The crew used a “Super Huey” helicopter designed for work at high altitude. It can lift heavy loads and the plane that was extracted weighed 3,100 pounds. “The helicopter dropped in a couple of guys who then hiked to the crash site,” Ems explained. “They took out the fuel and unburied the wings. Then they hooked up the long-line and the chopper went back and lifted it out and flew down toward Crested Butte.”
Once it dropped off the plane, the recovery crew disassembled the wings, put the plane on a trailer and drove it to Phoenix. “They said it could be up and flying again in March,” said Ems. “When the pilot activated the parachute, the door blew off. Otherwise they thought they might have been able to fly it out of the airport.”
The extraction was a cooperative effort with the Buckhorn HOA, Ems, the chopper company, the insurance company and the recovery crew. “It went pretty smoothly and they wanted to get it out as soon as possible,” said Ems. “The guys up there doing the work did say there seemed to be a lot of snowmobiles up there wanting to get a look at the plane before it was flown out.”
So much for an early season mountain bike/rubbernecking tour on Reno-Flag-Bear.