Plane crashes into crowd at Reno air races

[Adam1100]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44556695/ns/us_news-life/

[raven54]

Wow, doesn't sound good. Here's to hoping not too many people were killed in this accident.

[jona]

At least 12 killed , one person cut in half and 75 injured , 25 critical. Horrible accident.

[winds_in_flight_wtf]

blows my mind how this can still happen given the lesson of the Ukrainian SU accident. RIP to all the victims.

[jpilot77]

The pilot who crashed was 80 years old. Apparently he was in third place at 400 to 500 feet when the plane just nose dived.

[AEROBAT]

They race much lower than 400-500', the procedure in an emergency is to zoom climb up out of the race pattern and [hopefully] land.

I hope this does not mean the end of the air races.

[sky's the limit]

Posted by Grimey in the closed thread:

[jona]

Another video , VERY Graphic but gives you a better view of plane before crash.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20110916/EVE ... aces-crash

[System Message]

It is suspected Jimmy Leeward's elevator trim tab departed.

[SheriffPatGarrett]

Notice the fumes venting from the left rear side...

Power and reliability would come from Shanholtzer’s hot-rodded V-12 Merlin. In a big move, the drag reduction part of the equation came from removing the Mustang’s iconic belly scoop. The function of the radiator and oil cooler would be combined in a heat exchanger, and that would be placed in a tank of water/methanol. As hot coolant and engine oil flowed through the exchanger, heat would transfer to the water/meth where it would boil and vent overboard. The whole idea was to have zero cooling drag on the airplane. In fact, the only air coming into the airplane is fed to the engine. Since the late 1940s, The Galloping Ghost is only the fourth racing P-51 to undergo this surgery. If done right, it has some big benefits to offer.

In turbines, you feed this in the intake on take off to augment the air density...give a hell of a kick...


http://www.leewardairranch.com/racing/s ... -made-reno



http://www.rgj.com/article/20110916/EVE ... aces-crash

Look passed out from the water-meth toxic fumes:

[SheriffPatGarrett]

http://www.facebook.com/JimmyLeeward

[grimey]

http://www.livestream.com/loadedtv/vide ... d75b5f351b

press conference starts @56:30
the raw footage of the clip jona posted is also available there, gives a view of the emergency efforts.

[rsandor]

I would say the lack of trim tab was a contributing factor, for sure.

apparently he got a partial mayday call in..

RIP and my prayers are with the injured.

[grimey]

[SheriffPatGarrett]

http://www.livestream.com/loadedtv/vide ... 1ff436ccb4

Listen to the commentator saying at the beginning: " If there is smoke pouring out of an airplane,
it mean it is in big trouble...If there is NO smoke pouring out of the "Galloping Ghost", it is in big trouble"...

Nothing pouring out of the diving Ghost...the steam going at the wrong place?
His head look like full forward too...passed out?

[Geko]

Sad day.

[Rudy]

Here's another pic of the tail. I'm not sure if this is a trim tab or a servo tab but this is likely the cause of the accident.

[flyinthebug]

Very sad day indeed. Original death toll has been changed from 12 to 3 dead and dozens injured. I wonder how they claimed 12 dead so quickly, when it was only 3? Either way a very sad day for aviation. RIP to all those lost:(

[cgzro]

Warning - speculation based on the picture - If a trim tab gets disconnected it can flutter. A fluttering trim tab now acts like a boost tab and could induce flutter on the elevator, a fluttering elevator would mean the joystick would be jack hammering back and forth 100's of times a second making roll control impossible....

[System Message]

From the 1999 race.

, pilot Bob Hannah had a wild ride when the elevator trim tab broke off the aircraft and pitched the racer up at approximately 10 G's. Hannah took a G-induced nap but recovered consciousness high over the race course. The flaps had been mis-rigged, and led to undesirable pitch trim forces. At the speeds they were flying at Reno, the tab was sticking way out in the breeze and it had fluttered off.

[SheriffPatGarrett]

Most accidents have not one, not two but usually three causes or things going wrong that overwhelm control.
That's why aviation is so expensive, there is always back ups behind back ups, but arrive times that even this
is not enough.

Indication of the violent pitching, the tailwheel got kicked out of it's well...

[Geko]

Looks like 6 more people lost their fights to survive. Death toll at 9.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/us/re ... crash.html

[structurespilot]

Sad day for aviation, sad to see race fans lose their lives. I had a chance too see the galloping ghost last year, it was a very cool aircraft. I even made it my avitar picture here on Avcanada. Too bad we will never see it again, or for that matter Mr.Leeward.

[lortech]

More details on the crash

RENO, Nev. - A World War II-era plane had a video camera facing outward, and memory cards were found at the scene where it crashed near a grandstand in Reno. It raises the possibility of video of the crash that killed nine, including the pilot.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday the cards will be analyzed to see if there is any footage. Before it crashed, the aircraft also sent information to the racing team crew including oil pressure and temperature, altitude and velocity. That information could help investigators determine what caused the plane to crash.

Officials said they have heard reports the pilot sent a mayday call before crashing. They said so far there is no evidence of a call.

The plane hit the first few rows of VIP box seats like a missile Friday, causing a crater roughly 3 feet (1 metre) deep and 8 feet (2.4 metres) across with debris spread out over more than an acre.

Some members of the crowd have reported noticing a strange gurgling engine noise from above before the P-51 Mustang, dubbed "The Galloping Ghost," pitched violently upward, twirled and took an immediate nosedive into the crowd.

The plane, flown by a 74-year-old veteran racer and Hollywood stunt pilot, disintegrated in a ball of dust, debris and bodies as screams of "Oh my God!" spread through the crowd.

The death toll rose to nine Saturday as investigators determined that several onlookers were killed on impact as the plane appeared to lose a piece of its tail before slamming like a missile into the crowded tarmac.

Noah Joraanstad, 25, said he watched in horror as the vintage plane came hurtling toward where he was sitting in the VIP section. He started running, then was blown off his feet.

Flying shrapnel hit his in back, barely missing his spine and kidney. He had nine stitches in his head and was covered in aviation fuel that burned his skin as spectators tried to wash it off.

When he looked around, the plane was just gone.

"The biggest pieces I could see, it looked like just someone sprinkled Legos in every direction," Joraanstad told The Associated Press from his bed at Northern Nevada Medical Center.

Ed Larson, 59, who lives part-time in Genoa, Nevada, and part-time in San Diego, saw the plane coming and ran. He was hit on the back of the head by debris and one of his Achilles tendons was cut. His calf was shredded and his shoulder separated.

"It was just surrealistic to see something like that," Larson said.

The crash killed the pilot, Jimmy Leeward, and eight spectators. So far, two have been identified. Michael Wogan, 22, of Scottsdale, Arizona, had muscular dystrophy and was in a wheelchair the VIP section when the plane crashed, the family said Saturday. The Washoe County, Nevada, medical examiner identified the other victim as Greg Morcom of Washington state, a first-time spectator at the show, according to KOMO-TV.

Officials said 69 people were treated at hospitals, including 46 who have been released and 31 who remain there. Six were in critical condition Sunday morning.

Doctors who treated the injured said it was among the most severe situations they had ever seen because of the large number of people hurt, including at least two children younger than 18 who are not among those in critical condition. Injuries included major head wounds, facial trauma and limb injuries, including amputations, doctors said.

NTSB officials were on the scene Sunday to determine what caused Leeward to lose control of the plane, and they were looking at amateur video clips that appeared to show a small piece of the aircraft falling to the ground before the crash. Witnesses who looked at photos of the part said it appeared to be an "elevator trim tab," which helps pilots keep control of the aircraft.

Reno police also provided a GPS mapping system to help investigators recreate the crash scene.

Questions were raised, too, about modifications made to make the plane more aerodynamic so it would go faster without a bigger engine. In a podcast uploaded to YouTube in June, Leeward said major changes were made to the plane before this year's race. He said his crew cut five feet (1.5 metres) off each wing and shortened the ailerons — the back edge of the main wings used to control balance — to 32 inches (81 centimetres), down from about 60 inches (152 centimetres).

"I know the speed. I know it'll do the speed. The systems aren't proven yet. We think they're going to be OK," Leeward said.

The Mustang that disintegrated into the crowd had minor crashes almost exactly 40 years ago after its engine failed. P-51 historian Dick Phillips of Burnsville, Minnesota, said Saturday the plane had had several new engines since then as well as a new canopy and other modifications.

Investigators also said they will be looking at the health of Leeward. Friends say the owner of the Leeward Air Ranch Racing Team was in excellent health.

His website says he has flown more than 120 races and served as a stunt pilot for numerous movies, including "Amelia" and "The Tuskegee Airmen."

The National Championship Air Races draw thousands of people to Reno every September to watch various military and civilian planes race. Local schools often hold field trips there, and a local sports book took wagers on the outcomes.

It is the only air race of its kind in the United States. Planes at the yearly event fly wingtip-to-wingtip as low as 50 feet (15 metres) off the ground at speeds sometimes surpassing 500 mph (800kph). Pilots follow an oval path around pylons, with distances and speeds depending on the class of aircraft.

The Federal Aviation Administration and air race organizers spend months preparing for air races as they develop a plan involving pilot qualification, training and testing along with a layout for the course. The FAA inspects pilots' practice runs and briefs pilots on the route manoeuvrs and emergency procedures.

The crash marked the first time spectators had been killed since the races began 47 years ago in Reno. Twenty pilots including Leeward have died in that time, race officials said.

The disaster prompted renewed calls for race organizers to consider ending the event because of the dangers. Officials said they would look at everything as they work to understand what happened.

Another crash, on Saturday, came at an airshow in Martinsburg, West Virginia, when a post-World War II plane, a T-28, crashed and burst into flames. The pilot was killed.

[FLATP]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/wor ... le2170658/