Pilot’s fateful decision saves friends’ lives
A 66-year-old pilot who was killed when his plane crashed at an airport near Lake Tahoe was a Northern California emergency room doctor who was leaving to provide medical care at a needy village in Mexico, according to the volunteer group that coordinated the trip.
Dr. James Richard Ungar of Yreka, Calif., had told his two passengers to leave the single-engine plane, so he could test its airworthiness. The Piper Comanche hit a hangar at the Truckee-Tahoe Airport in Truckee just after takeoff Thursday morning.
Nevada County coroner's officials say he died on impact. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating .
"Our entire organization shares with family and friends the devastation over this horrible fatal accident," said dentist Adrian Fenderson, spokesman for Los Medicos Voladores, which is Spanish for The Flying Doctors. "We are at the same time relieved that Dr. Ungar's two passengers are alive because of his selfless concern for their safety."
Ungar was an emergency room doctor and medical director at Fairchild Medical Center in Yreka, not far from the Oregon border, and had been flying planes since his youth.
