Report: Plane crashes into stands at Reno air races

[Bosonic]

Source: MSNBC

RENO, Nev. — A plane crashed into the stands Friday at the annual Reno air races, KRNV-TV reported.

There was no immediate report on injuries.

The competition at the National Championship Air Races and Air Show is done in six classes of aircraft, the races’ website says. The unlimited class “has generally been populated by stock or modified WWII fighters with the P-51 Mustangs, F-8F Bearcats and Hawker Sea Fury being flown most often. The Unlimited Class flies in speeds exceeding 500 mph,” the website says.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44556695/ns/us_news-life/?ocid=twitter#.TnPjaOw1agA

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VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCNePeKn3Tg&feature=youtu.be

Crash seems *near* the stands, not into them so hopefully not so bad.

-----------------------------------------------

Update

Reports of 12 Dead at Least 30 Critically Injured at Reno Air Races

Multiple fatalities at the Reno Air Races after an Unlimited plane crashed into the grandstand soon after take-off.

Unlimited plane has crashed at the Reno Air Races just after 4 p.m. that has killed 12 people and injured at least 30 Friday, hitting people seated in the box seats in the grandstand.

According to witnesses pilot Jimmy Leeward was flying the Galloping Ghost, that went down soon after take-off during the beginning of the Unlimited race.

The Unlimited plane slid into the grandstand, box seats injurying dozens of spectators.

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/Reports_of_12_Dead_and_As_Many_as_30_Injured_at_Reno_Air_Races_129997833.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Xithras]

2. I dunno about "not so bad". That's a fatal impact.

That thing augered in hard. No way that was surviveable.

[Bosonic]

3. Relative to going directly into the stands I'd say it is not so bad

The pilot is almost certainly dead in any case.

[joshcryer]

5. 75+ casulties (25 severely) according to AP:

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_18913546

Stephanie Kruse, a spokeswoman for the Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority, said 25 people were critically injured and another 25 people were seriously injured in the crash.

Another post in DU claims 13 dead according to reports they're hearing.

I don't think such events require discussions on whether something is "so bad" or not.

[vets74]

29. Online STILL PHOTOs -- Plane falling, scale of crash area, not gory

-- the pilot before flying

LA Times -- Reno air crash online page

[joshcryer]

4. Word is that it was Jimmy Leeward, and his site isn't loading now, trying to find a more concrete...

...source. Obviously didn't make it...

edit: here's his facebook, lots of condolences: http://www.facebook.com/JimmyLeeward

[Hissyspit]

6. Video of crash:

http://wireupdate.com/news/graphic-video-of-reno-nevada-plane-crash.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCNePeKn3Tg&feature=player_embedded

[Hissyspit]

7. (WARNING: DISTURBING/EXTREME GRAPHIC) Video of the Crash, Impact, Aftermath

39:00 in.

http://www.livestream.com/loadedtv/video?clipId=pla_b2efcd7d-ed04-4edf-89e8-f21ff436ccb4&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb

[joshcryer]

10. Damn. :( The warning is correct, EXTREMELY GRAPHIC.

It is zoomed in when it crashes and the camera pans over all of the casualties, what a tragic tragic day. It looks like the pilot did try to avoid the crowd and clipped the front end of it, but it's still very sad. :(

[kestrel91316]

11. Well, from that video we know that there is one definite traumatic

amputation of a right leg at the upper thigh in a middle-aged white male, who was still alive when taken away on a stretcher.

The only good thing is, I somehow managed not to faint when I saw it.

[krispos42]

22. YouTube pulled the video. Violation of ToS n/t

[Faygo Kid]

8. Wow. How tragic.

Unbelievable.

[kestrel91316]

9. I am a little concerned - I have a LOT of cousins and such in Reno.

I hope none of them were at the air races today.

[kestrel91316]

36. My cousin's teenaged daughter was there on Thursday with a field trip from school.

[Hissyspit]

12. Via Reno Airport Twitter Feed: @RenoAirport: The 2011 National Championship Air Races are cancelled.

https://twitter.com/#!/RenoAirport/status/114877633937940480

[JohnnyRingo]

13. They were having a hard time in that video keeping crowd control

People wandering through past casualties taking pictures and snooping about. Hopefully no one was picking up souvenirs that will be needed for investigation.

There was one guy in a white shirt and white bucket hat who got into a heated discussion with a red shirted security guard at 45:48 just after the gruesome severed leg victim was shown. Soon after at 46:25 he runs back through to take the hand of a young lady and as he was leaving the right side of the screen a security guard takes him face down to the pavement. I imagine such a scene pumps the adrenaline.

Very sad. I've been a big fan of the Reno races, but I didn't even think about it this year. I hope the toll is better than it looks.

[Hissyspit]

14. Latest from AP: At Least 3 Dead, 56 Injured, Several Critically

From AP Twitter Feed: "Official: At least 3 dead, 56 injured in #Reno air race crash, several critically injured: http://apne.ws/nREbxp -CJ"

[vets74]

27. KOLO has it at 25 critically injured, as many as 12 dead/dying.

Meanwhile the corporatist press focuses on the pilot, Jimmy Leeward. They'll pretend he's a hero for missing the main crowd.

Reno has killed people for years and years. This is a crazy sport, similar to speed boats.

Their most important product is demonstrating how to waste hydrocarbons.

[alp227]

15. DAMN - first there was a mass shooting and now this

I found this story hard to believe at first, how could a plane crash into a group of people so fast without much warning?

[jwirr]

16. Did I hear Rachel correctly? I think she said the pilot is 80 years old?

That cannot be true!

[pinboy3niner]

17. Later report says he actually was 74

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1953959&mesg_id=1954834

[jwirr]

21. Someone she was listening to was suggesting that there might have

been no malfunction but instead a medical situation. That is possible.

[DemoTex]

18. I'm reading and seeing that there was no fire.

As an ALPA-trained airline accident investigator, my first thought is "no fire, no gas." Fuel starvation is almost axiomatic in a crash like that without fire. If that is determined to be the case here, was Jimmy Leeward so intent on winning the time trials that he took-off with a dangerously light fuel load (a lighter P-51 means a faster P-51)?

BTW: Lot's of those airplanes fly over my lookout on the way to the Reno Air Races every year (pics in my Journal Archives). Looks like they will be flying home early this year, since the Reno Air races have been canceled.

:shrug:

[The River]

19. As Someone Who Has Witnessed

a few dozen jet fighters crash right in front of me (Vietnam), there is no way
I'd go to an air show / race. If something can go wrong, it will, eventually.
I still have crash nightmares 40 years later.

[DemoTex]

20. I flew 250 combat missions in RVN/Laos/Cambodia, and I'm with you bro!

And I witnessed the MiG-29 lawn-dart crash at the Paris Air Show in 1989 (there on assignment as an aviation journalist) and a P-51 roll-over crash at the Fulton County Airport (FTY) west of Atlanta in the 1960s.

Mac

[GliderGuider]

23. Photo from AP shows no sign of the pilot in the cockpit

His head should be visible in the canopy in this pic (click on the link). Possible medical problem? But he should have been strapped in too tightly to slump out of view in such a small cockpit.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/media/ALeqM5jkHpn9H12gJtyp8VX8yjFfSc8hPg?docId=96254e803f4b447f98f53e82491e8a7f&size=l

[leveymg]

25. That is very strange. Here's a view of a P-51 with the pilot, as it should normally appear.

Even if the guy had a heart attack and slumped over, you should still see some of his head. Did he bail out - that looks like a non-standard canopy in the crash plane - is it possible the pilot could exit and the canopy would re-close? The standard canopy, like the one on #9, below, slides. I think the crashed racer, however, has a custom hinged canopy that might re-close in flight after being opened.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/media/ALeqM5jkHpn9H12gJtyp8VX8yjFfSc8hPg?docId=96254e803f4b447f98f53e82491e8a7f&size=l

[leveymg]

26. Here's a profile of the crashed racer in 2007 showing the pilot

?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1267552822390

[ReverendDeuce]

32. Here's an even BETTER photo... SAME airplane, in flight!

[leveymg]

37. Pilot's head is clearly visible in this shot. Why not in the last photo taken of the plane?

Here's a video of the same P-51 taken last year at Reno. The pilot's head is clearly visible from the same angle as the crash photo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLk3wwVrvwc&NR=1

WTF?

[ReverendDeuce]

28. Where do you find these high-res pictures?

I had to struggle to find anything other than 640x480...

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

30. Beam me up Scotty...

[Flubadubya]

31. The Lone Rapturee?

:silly:

[krispos42]

24. Powered by a V-12 engine of 27 liters displacement

...driving a large, 4-bladed propeller. The plane crashed almost vertically. The engine's axis was, therefore, also nearly vertical, so when it broke apart at several thousand RPM all those parts would have blown outwards in a 360° circle.

All that energy of rotation in a motor that weighs nearly a ton. Yikes.

[kestrel91316]

35. At least one spectator had a leg severed at the upper thigh (shown on video).

Those airplane parts were traveling at very high speed.

[johnfunk]

33. Has FOX News blamed Obama yet?

Fair and balanced </sarcasm>

[bemildred]

34. Hey, he definitely let it happen, and on his watch too.

:sarcasm:

[moondust]

38. CNN: Nine dead counting the pilot. n/t