Pilot killed in mid-air collision positively identified

The pilot killed in a Sept. 16 airplane crash was positively identified as Donald Bartholomew, 74, from Gardnerville.

“The ID was made by comparing DNA samples obtained from the crash and from Bartholomew’s residence,” Sheriff Dan Coverley said on Friday morning.

The rare mid-air collision at Minden-Tahoe Airport with a Civil Air Patrol aircraft occurred 9:47 a.m. as Bartholomew was reportedly flying from his small private airport near Ruhenstroth.

Witnesses said they saw two aircraft collide in mid-air with an explosion before one fell to a field located between Highway 395 and Heybourne Road.

Bartholomew was flying a 1946 Globe Swift GC-1B which collided with a Cessna T206H Turbo Stationair HD with two on board.

The Cessna landed damaged but safely at the airport.

Respected aviation blogger Juan Browne of the Blancolirio Channel on You Tube said that Bartholomew built and rebuilt Swift Aircraft for decades.

The crash was the second one in less than a month after one man was killed and another severely injured on Aug. 20 crash during takeoff.

According to National Transportation Safety Board records, it has been more than six years since a fatal crash that was related to the Carson Valley airport. On Feb. 19, 2018, a Piper PA34 broke up as the pilot was entering a landing pattern.

A quarter century has passed since there have been two fatal crashes in Minden a month apart, both involving gliders. 

On June 13, 1999, a pilot was killed after he failed to properly install the aircraft’s vertical stabilator had been improperly installed and fell off while being towed into the air. A month to the day later, a motorized glider crashed after breaking up in the air on July 13, 1999, according to records.