Missing-plane wreckage found in Pine Nut range

Two people were found dead along with a missing aircraft on Thursday afternoon near Bald Mountain in the Pine Nuts northeast of Double Spring Flat.

Douglas County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Pat Brooks said identification of the aircraft’s occupants was pending notification of next of kin.

The crash site was located at 2:20 p.m. Brooks said Douglas Search & Rescue personnel have examined the wreckage.

As of Thursday afternoon, the sheriff’s office was in the process of recovering the bodies and securing the scene.

The single engine Cessna 128 left North Las Vegas Airport at 6 p.m. Sunday, according to The Associated Press. Piloting the aircraft was Cory Marble, 30, a Reno resident. His passenger was a 21-year-old Minden woman who has yet to be identified.

A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said the plane departed from the North Las Vegas Airport about 6 p.m. on a windy Sunday and was last detected 78 miles southeast of Reno.

Their stated destination was Reno-Stead Airport, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, but the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office reported the aircraft was expected to land at Minden-Tahoe Airport on Sunday. Douglas County Search & Rescue located the crash site with the assistance of searchers from Lyon County, the Washoe County Sheriff’s helicopter RAVEN and the Civil Air Patrol.

Douglas County Search and Rescue aided Lyon County searchers in locating the aircraft. The initial search was joined by teams from Mineral and Mono counties, the Nevada National Guard and the Nevada Department of Emergency Management.

This is the second fatal aircraft crash so far this year in the Pine Nuts.

Maj. Thomas Cooper of the Nevada Wing of the Civil Air Patrol said his unit alone put more than 440 man-hours and 40 hours of flight time into the search.

Marble’s mother, Kay Lynn Marble, said her son was returning from a weekend business trip to southern Nevada when he vanished.

Cory Marble is an Eagle Scout, the oldest of three boys, and works as a professional pilot with an air ambulance company.