Plaque Honoring Galaxy Crash Stolen

The plaque honoring the 70 people who died in the Galaxy Airlines flight 203 crash near Meadowood Mall, has been stolen from Reno’s Rancho San Rafael Park. The two-foot-by-two-foot brass plaque was removed from a large rock to which it had been bolted.

The Lockheed L-188 Electra 4-engine turboprop was returning to Minneapolis from a Super Bowl trip sponsored by Caesars Tahoe.  It crashed shortly after takeoff from what was then called the Reno-Cannon International Airport, January 21st, 1985, killing all but 17-year-old George Lamson Jr.

Lamson, now 46 and a Reno resident, was recently featured in the CNN documentary “Sole Survivor.”

The problem was that an access door was left open by the ground crew. The vibration upon take-off led to a chain of events in which the crew became confused and basically forgot to fly the airplane.

The crash is partly the reason for the Cockpit Resource Management training program which is required today.

So far the Washoe County sheriff’s office says there are no suspects or leads in the case.