5 People Killed in Nevada Medical Transport Flight Crash Identified

A Care Flight medical transport plane carrying a patient and four others that crashed the day before is seen in Lyon County, Nev., on Feb. 25, 2023. Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP

The five people who were killed when a medical transport flight en route to Salt Lake City crashed in a mountainous area in northern Nevada on Friday have been identified.

The five individuals on board included the pilot, the flight nurse, and a paramedic, along with a patient and a family member of the patient, according to a statement from Care Flight, which provides ambulance service by plane and helicopter.

GoFundMe pages set up by family members, which the crowdfunding platform verified to CNN, have now revealed the identities of the victims.

According to a GoFundMe set up by the pilot’s sister-in-law, the pilot was Scott Walton, a flight instructor and a father of three girls.

“My brother-in-law, Scott Walton, was the pilot of the Guardian Flight medical plane that crashed fatally on Friday, Feb. 24, in Nevada. Transporting patients to receive life-saving care was an absolute passion and life’s mission for Scott. He was one of those special people who lit up a room, who brought smiles to everyone’s face, who never met a stranger,” Katie Maguire Walton, his sister-in-law, wrote on the GoFundMe page.

“Now his loving wife and three young daughters, who were the center of his world, are left to navigate the future without him. He loved them more than absolutely anything in the world. And we know his one, desperate worry will be their future,” Maguire Walton added.

‘A Loving Husband, New Father’

A separate GoFundMe confirmed the care flight paramedic on board the aircraft was Ryan Watson. The page was set up by a friend of Watson’s wife.

“Ryan was a loving husband, new father, son, brother, friend, and an incredible care provider whose dedication to his family and community was unmatched,” the page reads. “Ryan loved being a flight medic and brought a positive attitude to every call and patient interaction he had. Ryan had an infectious personality; he was hilarious, ambitious, and free-spirited. He loved traveling the world and going on extreme adventures outside of work with his beautiful wife Kailey, family, and friends.”

The page notes that Watson and his wife had welcomed a new baby in January.

The flight’s nurse was identified as Ed Pricola, according to a GoFundMe page organized by Kleine Calvo on behalf of Pricola’s wife, Lauren.

“He just began his Careflight journey last fall, after working as a charge nurse at Carson Tahoe in the emergency department. He put NP-school on hold, with the determination to learn critical care and apply his knowledge and skills in the field,” the page states.

“Ed leaves behind Lauren, the love of his life of over 12 years, his daughter Riley, 4, his son Everett, 2, and his golden retriever, Rip,” according to Calvo.

Elsewhere, another GoFundMe organized by the family of the patient and family member on board the flight identified them as Mark Rand and his wife, Terri.

“Mark was on his way to receive lifesaving medical treatment in Utah. What was supposed to be a saving grace, ended in tragedy for the Rand family and the families of the crew and first responders on board,” Misty Gruenemay, the organizer of the Rands’ GoFundMe, said.

“Mark and Terri were big-hearted, family-oriented, proud parents and grandparents. The Rand family is now coming together to figure out how to move forward.”

NTSB Probing Aircraft Crash

The Washoe County coroner’s office also confirmed the identities of the victims to News 4, an NBC affiliate.

The single-engine Pilatus PC-12 fixed-wing aircraft departed Reno, Nevada, en route to Salt Lake City at approximately 9 p.m. local time on Friday, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said at a press conference on Sunday.

According to Landsberg, the plane was in the air for about 14 minutes and had reached an altitude of just over 19,000 feet when radar noticed the plane was in a descending right turn at a high rate of descent, Landsberg said.

“The last radar return was at about 11,000 feet and the evidence that we have at this point is that the aircraft broke up in flight,” Landsberg said.

Several parts of the plane “departed the aircraft” and have been recovered by officials, but the aircraft wasn’t equipped with a cockpit voice or flight data recorder, which weren’t required, Landsberg said.

At the time of the crash, a Winter Storm Warning issued by the National Weather Service in Reno was in place for several regions of Nevada amid heavy snow and strong winds.

Care Flight is a service of REMSA Health in Reno, Nevada, and Guardian Flight.

The Epoch Times has contacted REMSA Health for comment.

On Feb. 22, five employees of an environmental consulting firm were killed when a small airplane they were traveling in crashed outside an industrial area of Little Rock, Arkansas.