Corvallis, Oregon, man killed in Yerington plane crash

A 28-year-old Corvallis, Ore., man was identified as one of the pilots who was killed when two aircraft collided Sunday.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office says Tyler Adams, 28, was killed. The investigation and identification process still is underway for the second pilot.

The single-engine Cessna 170 and an experimental aircraft crashed in midair about 8 a.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

The pilots reported that the pilots were the planes’ only occupants and no one on the ground was hurt.

Gregor said that the circumstances of the collision were not immediately known, and the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

The crash occurred near Yerington in western Nevada during an informal weekend fly-in at the dry lake bed, the Lyon County Sheriff’s office told the paper.

The office said participants on the ground heard a sound a distance away and saw falling debris and smoke, sending them running or driving to the crash site.

“Deputies met with witnesses on scene who stated that two airplanes collided north of the dry lake bed and crashed into the side of a hill,” sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Powell said in a statement.

Several airplanes were flying in and out of the dry lake bed over the weekend, the sheriff’s office said in its statement.

The National Safety Transportation Board spent most of Monday at the crash site examining the area and the planes. They are the lead agency for the crash investigation. The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office is the lead agency for the coroner investigation.