Pilot unhurt in hard landing

A pilot of a plane involved in a hard landing at Minden-Tahoe Airport was uninjured on Tuesday afternoon. Al Asti, 77, an Alpine View resident, was landing at Minden when the aircraft bounced.

“The prop hit the runway and I couldn’t control it after that,” he said. “I stood on the left rudder to get it off the runway.”

The 1965 Piper Comanche’s landing gear collapsed and the plane slid off the runway at 12:28 p.m., according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

While the plane was off the runway, it stopped too close to Runway 16-34, which had to be closed until the wreckage was cleared. Asti was returning to Carson Valley after a two-hour flight from Richmond, Utah.

Asti was the aircraft’s only occupant. East Fork firefighters and Douglas County deputies responded to the crash.