Two killed in glider, tow plane collision over Middletown

<p class="bold allcaps">UPDATE: Sunday, Nov. 29, 11:05 am</p> <p>Investigators continued examining the wrecked remains of two planes Sunday morning near Middletown in Lake County, attempting to determine how they collided.</p><p>Both pilots were killed in the impact. Their names weren’t being released Sunday morning, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department.</p><p>Saturday morning’s crash apparently occurred not long after a tow plane had pulled a glider into the sky over Middletown.</p><p>“From what I understand, the tow plane took the glider up in the air and was coming back. The glider was having a hard time getting lift” and also may have been heading back to the airport, said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Rob Sonsteng</p><p>The crash was reported at 11 a.m. as the tow plane and glided smashed into each other about one mile south of a landing strip outside of Middletown and south of Hidden Valley Lake.</p><p>Witnesses told fire officials it appeared the pilots did not see each other.</p><p>The collision occurred about a mile south of the runway and the wreckage from both planes fell to the ground abut 100 yards apart, Sonsteng said.</p><p>The aircraft had come from Crazy Creek Air Adventures, a longtime glider port operating north of Middletown. </p><p>Glider port owner Jim Indrebo Sunday said he didn’t see the crash but said he thought the two pilots may have been coming in for a landing when they collided.</p><p>He directed questions to crash investigators.</p><p>“It is difficult,” he said, of the two deaths.</p><p>Sunday morning, plane crash investigators were at the site, said Sonsteng.</p><p>The crash is being reviewed by investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.</p><p>“The wreckage was still there. They were looking at the planes and looking at the impact of how they collided,” Sonsteng said.</p><h3>ORIGINAL STORY: Saturday, Nov. 28, 10:08 pm</h3> <p>A glider and the tow plane that pulled it in the sky over Middletown collided Saturday, killing the pilots of both aircraft.</p><p>The collision occurred just after 11 a.m. The names of the two pilots were not available late Saturday.</p><p>The tow plane and glider smashed into each other about a mile south of a landing strip outside of Middletown and south of Hidden Valley Lake. </p><p>Witnesses said it appeared the pilots did not see each other, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Rob Sonsteng said.</p><p>“It sounded like they were both coming into the airport and didn’t see each other and had a mid-air collision,” he said. “Both were coming from different directions and didn’t see each other up there.”</p><p>The collision occurred about a mile south of the runway and the wreckage from both planes fell to the ground abut 100 yards apart, Sonsteng said.</p><p>Investigators from the Federal Aviation Authority were on scene Saturday. Representatives from the National Safety Transportation Board were expected late Saturday or early Sunday.</p><p>Winds reached 52 mph in some locations in Lake County but it was unclear how windy it was near the Middletown air strip because the National Weather Service does not have monitoring equipment at that location, according to meteorologist Eric Kurth.</p>