SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — A glider was forced to make an emergency landing on a ski run at Heavenly Mountain Resort Sunday afternoon. No injuries were reported.

The SoaringNV aircraft encountered unexpected downdraft and had to land, said Laurie Harden, a spokeswoman for the company.

“Sometimes right against some lift, you can have some sink,” Harden said.

The choice to land on the ski run was made by pilot Jeffrey Hazelgrove after realizing the glider was too low to make it to Lake Tahoe Airport or the Bijou Golf Course, Harden said. In addition to Hazelgrove, two passengers were aboard the craft.

The pilot chose the ski run, rather than crash-land in the trees, because there were few people on the strip of snow and he deemed it the safest place, Harden said.

“Had the slope had people on it, he would've put that glider in the trees,” she said.

Hazelgrove has more than 12,000 glider flights and decades of experience, Harden said. The glider launched from Minden-Tahoe Airport. It was removed from the Heavenly ski slope Sunday.

No investigation is underway by the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office, Lt. Les Lovell said Monday.

“There was no ill intent,” Lovell said. “I guess he did the best he could to pick a spot that was as unpopulated as possible.”

Dylan Silver is a reporter with the Tahoe Daily Tribune, a sister publication of The Union.