A small airplane crashed near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday, killing the pilot and a passenger and critically injuring the only other person on board the single-engine aircraft. The 60-year-old pilot from suburban Sacramento, who was declared dead at the scene, reported engine trouble shortly after takeoff and was trying to make it back to the airport in Truckee, California, when the plane went down about 7:40 a.m. Two male passengers were flown by a medical helicopter to a Reno, Nevada, hospital with critical injuries.