FALLON, Nev. (AP) — A pilot killed in a single-engine plane crash near Lake Tahoe was a surgeon at Naval Air Station Fallon who served in Iraq and was part of a rescue team that helped save an injured rock climber who was stranded in the Sierra a year ago.
Officials at the air station identified the pilot Monday as 53-year-old Christopher Joas.
The plane he was piloting crashed July 7 in a wooded area near several homes in Meyers, California, southwest of South Lake Tahoe Airport. A passenger, 51-year-old Margaret McGuire, later died at a Reno hospital.