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A 74 year old pilot flying an almost 80 year old aircraft in a highly stressful situation at low altitude in close proximity to thousands of people...what could possibly go wrong?

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RENO, Nev. — A vintage World War II-era fighter plane crashed into a seating area Friday at a popular annual Reno air race show, killing at least three people, including the pilot, and injuring more than 50. Officials feared the death toll would rise.

Witnesses reported a horrific mix of blood, body parts and smoking debris strewn across the crash site.

The accident happened just before 4:30 p.m. during the National Championship Air Races at the Reno-Stead Airport.

Witnesses told KTVN-TV that planes in the Unlimited race were ascending when one aircraft, a vintage P-51 flown by a renowned air racer and movie stunt pilot, nose-dived into a box-seat area near a spectator grandstand in the southeast corner.

The plane disintegrated, strewing debris into the nearby stands.

Mike Draper, a spokesman for the Reno National Championship Air Races, described the scene as \"a mass-casualty situation.\" Bloodied bodies were spread across the area as people tended to the victims and ambulances rushed to the scene.

Jimmy Leeward, 74, of Ocala, Fla., who flew the P-51 Mustang, was killed, said Mike Houghton, president and CEO of Reno Air Races.


Renown Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Carter said at least two others taken to the hospital had died, but did not provide their identities.

Stephanie Kruse, a spokeswoman for the Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority, told The Associated Press that emergency crews took a total of 56 injury victims to three hospitals. She said they also observed a number of people being transported by private vehicle, which they are not including in their count.

Kruse said of the total 56, at the time of transport, 15 were considered in critical condition, 13 were serious condition with potentially life-threatening injuries and 28 were non-serious or non-life threatening.

\"This is a very large incident, probably one of the largest this community has seen in decades,\" Kruse told The AP. \"The community is pulling together to try to deal with the cope of it. The hospitals have certainly geared up and staffed up to deal with it.\"


Houghton said it's too early to know for sure what caused the wreck, but there appeared to be a \"problem with the aircraft that caused it to go out of control.\"

The National Transportation Safety Board was taking over the investigation. Houghton said the air races were canceled for the weekend.

Video: Several videos of plane crash emerge (on this page)
It's not known how many people were watching the air races at the time of crash. Houghton said the grandstands and box seats can hold tens of thousands of spectators.

'Unbelievable gore'
Witness Maureen Higgins of Alabama said the pilot was on his third lap when he lost control of the plane. She told the Gazette-Journal she was sitting about 30 yards away from the crash and the man in front of her was struck in the head by a piece of debris.

“I saw body parts and gore like you wouldn’t believe it. I’m talking an arm, a leg,” Higgins told the newspaper. “The alive people were missing body parts. I am not kidding you. It was gore. Unbelievable gore.”

Video apparently taken from the stands and posted on YouTube showed a plane crashing nose-down at the show after several other planes raced by in the air. Spectators could be heard gasping: \"Oh my God.\" A photograph captured the doomed plane, nose down just before impact.

\"It was in the Unlimited Gold race on about the second lap when the third-place aircraft, No. 177, the Galloping Ghost flown by Jimmy Leeward experienced mechanical problems,” said Tim O'Brien, a Grass Valley resident on assignment at the races for The Union newspaper. “The plane vaulted violently upward, followed by a dive straight into the front of the reserve grandstands.\"

Jeff Martinez, a KRNV weatherman, was just outside the air race grounds at the time. He said he saw the plane veer to the right and then \"it just augered straight into the ground.\"


\"You saw pieces and parts going everywhere,\" he said.

Local TV stations aired videotape of the scene that showed numerous people being treated at the scene or being carried on stretchers to ambulances. Debris from the crash was strewn through a seating area in front of the grandstands. A line of military jets could be seen in the background.

“It’s just like a massacre. It’s like a bomb went off,” said Dr. Gerald Lent of Reno, who witnessed the crash, told the Gazette-Journal. “There are people lying all over the runway.”

He added: “One guy was cut in half. There’s blood everywhere. There’s arms and legs.\"


Jimmy Leeward is seen in this Sept. 15, 2010, photo with his P-51 Mustang. The plane that crashed was named Galloping Ghost and was piloted by Leeward, a real estate developer from Ocala, Fla. Houghton said Leeward had been flying in the Reno air races since 1975.

Leeward flew into Reno for this year's air show and races with several members of his family and friends, race officials said.

From http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviati ... 30316.html

Joe Yancey was in the Rare Bear pits at the time and said he was pretty sure the steam boil-off cooler system exploded as Galloping Ghost came past. He thought that because the engine resumed power and the boil-off is the only other thing that could explode and leave the engine running. When it did, it probably caused control system damage to the rudder and elevator, and may well have injured Mr. Leeward, possibly severly or worse.

And from http://www.airshowbuzz.com/go/thread/vi ... #506812657

Appears whatever let loose took out the trim tab and elevator.

74 year old pilot is not to blame. There was a mechanical explosion that took out his flight controls. He called a MAYDAY and pulled up to get out of the race when controls were lost.

Sad day yet again for airshows and races.

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SoWW #2485
Cave Putorium!

I just have a problem with a bunch of guys with too much money beating the living snot out of absolutely irreplaceable airframes with equally irreplaceable engines in order to earn bragging rights at the country club. Sixty years ago P-51's, F-4U's and other WWII aircraft could be had for a few thousand dollars. Today, there are so few of them left I feel they should be preserved as part of aviation history. I'm all for keeping them flying, but not for this purpose.

OC

T-28 \"Trojan Horseman\" crashed today at a West Virginia airshow. What a horrible year for crashes and lost vintage aircraft and pilots, and one wing walker!

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/17/pl ... -air-show/

_________________
SoWW #2485
Cave Putorium!

Agreed.

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

From an eye witness:
On 9/17/2011 1:36 AM, Richard Xxxx wrote:


These were the fast planes working for position in the Gold race on Sunday. The airplane that went in was a highly modified P51 Mustang that had the scoop removed and a 'boil off' cooling system. It had been in development for the last four years and thru some bad breaks wasn't really able to show what it could do until this year. The pilot, Jimmy Leeward thought it was capable of winning the Gold race. I'm replaying the race in my mind, but Strega had qualified at a hair over 499 and was in first, Voodoo was in second and had qualified at 485--Leeward was close to that and I think he was running fifth and had just passed
rare Bear in front of us. I think he was gaining on the field and had just come down the west side of the course--\"the Valley of Speed\" where the airplanes tend to unload and pick up speed--sometimes in ground effect. At dinner someone had an AP picture that showed the horizontal stab with no trim tab on the elevator--which probably meant he had some catastrophic flutter which would cause limited, if any, control in pitch. I think that is fairly consistent with how it went in.
We were sitting in row 27, Section E which is directly in line with the Home Pylon which we've had now 12-13 years. It hit just in front of the grandstand in the boxes. It appeared that it took out roughly 8-10 of the boxes. The airplane and everyone in the boxes disintegrated in a split second. As it fell of to vertical, I couldn't believe it was actually happening and what was surreal was that it was heading directly for us, but seemed to pull of that line at the last possible moment. The entire sequence took about eight seconds and he hit about 30 feet to the east of the foot of our Section. Why it didn't explode, we'll never know--but I suspect it hit so hard and fast, it scattered everything with no chance to catch fire.
Pam and I are lucky to be alive. We were trying to draw a comparison and we feel like we have at least an inkling of how folks that escaped the Hyatt and the Twin Towers felt.

Richard

From a long time pilot and racer:
Subject: Reno accident preliminary information



A couple strange observations from the Reno accident. The retractable tail wheel had dropped into the extended position, while previous race photos had shown it retracted, and the pilot's helmeted head is not visible in either side or top view photos. Several photos show the left elevator trim tab departing and gone.

One of Leeward's friends and a fellow race pilot observes: \"...in addition to tab failure. Only one tab was trim-able which requires more travel as a single tab. (the P-51 usually has trim tabs on both elevators) What occurred and he was warned by several of us is there is an unnecessary great load on the single tab. When it failed the plane pitched so violently that it (the loads) broke the tail gear up lock as evident in the impact photo.\" Others have mentioned that the Galloping Ghost required heavy nose down trim at race speed, and required almost full down elevator trim. If the trim tab failed first, the aircraft would have pitched up violently, and video shows a VERY abrupt pull up that apparently created enough \"G\" loads to fail the tail gear lock, and quite likely the pilot seat as well, either back or down which would have forced Leeward out of position, and may well have incapacitated or at the very least disorientated him.

Many mentioned a warbling sound coming from the Galloping Ghost, attributing that to the engine, but that could have been the trim tab fluttering. Many witnesses were surprised that the aircraft did not explode on impact. That indeed was fortunate, yet while explosions occur quite often in air crashes, not all the time. Hollywood has conditioned us to expect that any crash results in flames and explosions. These are quite rare in auto crashes in the real world ... which most of us can attest to from first hand experiences.

Cheers, Bob

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

The more I read about this the more I think \"stupid stupid stupid\".

Oc

I tend to agree Chief. In the world of auto racing, the goal, other than winning, is to develop and test new technologies to promote safer, better performing and more efficient cars for the consumer. It's rare that we see auto races envolving 70+ year old, highly modified cars. What is the point other than to see who can fly the fastest with very old airframes. Why don't we see the aircraft industry using the Reno Air Race to develop faster, more efficient, and safer consumer or business aircraft?

I'll be the first to admit, that I love seeing the old warbirds of my Father's era, roaring overhead. There is nothing like the sound of a Mustang or Spitfire rumbling pass that makes you take note. But to modify these beautiful birds, and turn them into something that they were never intended to be, not only detracts from the beauty of the origional, but drastically reduces the life of the airframe, engine and other irreplacable componets of these birds.

It seems to me, that it would be more cost effective and safer, to build new airframes, based on the design lessons learned from these old fighters, but incorporating new technologies and materials to achieve advances in aircraft manufacturing in civil aviation. This SHOULD be the ultimate goal of air racing, IMHO.

_________________
Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

We had this exact discussion at break yesterday and I totally agree. I'd love to see some new technology applied to light aircraft.

OC

This aircraft could hardly be called a P-51 anymore than NASCARs are Chevys, Fords or Toyotas. In addition to what was stated above about the scoop being removed, it had 5 feet clipped off the wings and the fuselage was shortened by six feet.

Tragic accident, but I have read the testing had not gone well, but they decided to race it anyway.

Coach

Knew the wings had been clipped but hadn't heard about the fuselage being shortened...no wonder it was so pitch sensitive.

OC