A vintage World War II-era fighter plane plunged into the grandstands on Friday during a popular annual air show, killing at least nine people, injuring more than 50 spectators and creating a horrific scene strewn with body parts and smoking debris. The plane, flown by an 80-year-old
pilot, spiraled suddenly out of control and appeared to disintegrate upon impact. Bloodied bodies were spread across the area as people tended to the victims and ambulances rushed to the scene. Maureen Higgins of Alabama, who has been coming to the show for 16 years, said the pilot was on his third lap when he lost control.
She was sitting about 30 yards away from the crash and watched in horror as the man in front of her started bleeding after a piece of debris hit him in the head.
"I saw body parts and gore like you wouldn't believe it. I'm talking an arm, a leg," Higgins said "The alive people were missing body parts. I am not kidding you. It was gore. Unbelievable gore."
Among the dead was pilot Jimmy Leeward, 80, of Ocala, Florida, who flew the P-51 Mustang named the "Galloping Ghost," according to Mike Houghton, president and CEO of Reno Air Races.
Renown Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Carter confirmed that two others 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 Associated Press. "The community is pulling together to try to deal with the scope of it. The hospitals have certainly geared up and staffed up to deal with it."
The P-51 Mustang crashed into a box-seat area in front of the grandstand at about 4.30pm, race spokesman Mike Draper said. Houghton said Leeward appeared to have "lost control of the aircraft," though details on why that happened weren't immediately known.
Crash experts confirmed that they were looking at reports that a key part of the World War II's tailfin had fallen off before the accident, saying they had found a component on the ground.
Eight of the 54 injured in the crash remained in critical condition, according to updated figures released by the two main local hospitals where casualties were taken.
Two people had already been confirmed dead in hospital overnight, said Reno Police Department deputy chief Dave Evans, adding: "We also have a total of seven fatalities that we know of... on the tarmac to include the pilot."
The vintage P-51 Mustang was flying in the National Championship Air Races Friday when its elderly pilot, a race veteran, apparently lost control of the aircraft and it plunged at full speed into spectators.
Amateur video captured the moment the plane, a single-seat fighter aircraft from the 1940s called the "Galloping Ghost," barrel-rolled wildly through the sky and smashed at a near-vertical angle into a roped-off area for spectators, narrowly missing a grandstand packed with many more people.
An official from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it was "very unlikely" that the aircraft had a black box, but said investigators were aware of reports that a piece of the plane may have come off before the crash.
"We are aware of that. In fact, a component has been recovered in the area where that was observed. But I think it is critical at this point to know that we have not identified the component," said the official, Mark Rosekind.
The aircraft was flown by Florida businessman and pilot Jimmy Leeward, reported to be 74 years old. He had raced at the event since 1975, and had served as a stunt pilot for several Hollywood films.
Witnesses said the aircraft crashed into an area of box seats, while some said the pilot prevented even greater casualties by swerving to avoid hitting the grandstand itself.
"It pretty well wiped out the front of the box area," said Mike Houghton, the head of the Reno Air Racing Association. Video of the accident, shot from the grandstand, showed people gasping in horror as the plane came down.
RARA spokesman Mike Draper said the plane was a lap or two into the race when Leeward called in a mayday.
"We don't know why it crashed. The pilot did call in. He did pull out of the lap, which is what they do. They usually pull up, directly up to clear the race track," he added.
Eyewitness Ben Cissell praised the flying ace. "I think that that pilot in the last two seconds pulled up because he saw the bleachers and I would guess he probably saved 200 to 300 other people," he told CNN.
"I was about 100 feet (30 meters) from the crash site and I would think that the plane hit right at about the middle of those boxes," he said of the roped off area.
Houghton dismissed suggestions that the health of the pilot could have had a role in the crash.
"All of his medical records and everything were up to date, spot on and Jimmy was a very experienced and talented, qualified pilot," he said.
Leeward's family voiced its shock on his Facebook page, saying: "We are deeply saddened by the tragedy at the air race today. Please join us in praying at this time for all the families affected."
The noise was "hellish," a "big crunch," followed by stunned silence and then screams. The smell was acrid, spilled aviation fuel and burnt oil. And the sight was enough to keep Gerald Lent awake for more than 24 hours:
The massive plane falling from the sky directly toward him. The cloud of shattered tarmac and razor-sharp shrapnel. The body parts. The first responders. The dazed survivors at a storied air show that careened from festive to deadly in seconds.
On what should have been Day 4 of the National Championship Air Races in Reno, federal investigators arrived Saturday to start piecing together what brought the Galloping Ghost — a World War II plane with a flashy pilot in a much-anticipated race — to earth in violent fashion. The crash killed seven people on the tarmac, including the pilot, and two more died later at the hospital. Dozens were wounded.
Before Friday's disaster, the event had claimed the lives of 19 pilots since 1972, but never a spectator. As the death toll from the Friday crash rose and suspicion fell on a missing piece from the plane's tail, survivors grappled with opposing emotions. Many worried about the future of a beloved aviation event, even as they were haunted by images of graphic horror they likened to a battlefield or a terrorist attack.
"People were looking for relatives and their personal goods," Lent, a retired optometrist, recounted Saturday, still sounding shocked. "These guys were trying to pick up this leg. Legs are heavy. They tried to put it on a gurney. They couldn't. This gal in the bleacher was … screaming about a foot, but her feet were OK. We didn't see the foot until later. It was in the bleachers."
Friday at Reno-Stead Airport, where the suburbs give way to sagebrush-covered hills, started calm and festive. American flags fluttered atop grandstands. Vendors pitched kettle corn and lemonade. Banners touted downtown casinos where aviation buffs could place bets on the races.
Early in the day, Joshua Cross, an 18-year-old from Pomona, bought a red T-shirt with a picture of the plane he was most excited to see: the Galloping Ghost. The college freshman's father is a private pilot, and he's been coming to the Reno races since 2007. He especially loves the souped-up vintage planes.
Reno Mayor Bob Cashell told reporters that the air race spectator fatalities were the first in four decades. The Reno Air Race Association was founded in 1964, according to its Facebook page.
"This is the first time in 40 years, I think, that we've had a visitor injured or killed," Cashell said Saturday. "We've lost some pilots, but we've never had a major catastrophe."
When asked if the high-speed air race was held too close to public viewers, Cashell responded: "I'm not an expert on that. It's going to be up to the airport authority and it's going to be up to the air race board, and it's going to be up to these guys," referring to the NTSB investigators.
"We would like to see if we can keep it open," the mayor said about the air race and its future.
One local hospital, Renown Medical Center, received 34 patients, six of whom were in critical condition as of Saturday evening, a spokeswoman said. Two of the six critical patients suffered major head injuries and their prognosis is "guarded," according to Dr. Myron Gomez, chief of trauma services. Two patients -- a male and a female -- died, the hospital said Friday.
Dr. Mike Morkin, the medical director of emergency services at the hospital, was on duty when the call about the crash came in Friday.
"The severity of this accident was the worst I've seen since I've been at Renown," Morkin, a 16-year veteran at the hospital, said, adding "it was traumatic."
Renown South Meadows Medical Center received and discharged five patients, the hospital said Saturday.
St. Mary's Hospital in Reno said it had accepted 28 patients from the accident: two were in critical condition, seven in serious condition, and five in fair condition as of Saturday afternoon. Fourteen other patients were treated and released Friday.
The pilot, identified as Jimmy Leeward, a real estate developer from Ocala, Florida, was killed in the crash, according to a show official. The 74-year-old was flying a P-51 Mustang.
Saturday races were canceled in the wake of the crash, the show said. A memorial service scheduled for the pilot in Reno was also canceled because his family left the area, said Valerie Miller, a race spokeswoman.
A day before the crash, in an interview from Airshow TV, Leeward expressed confidence about his prospects in the race -- while hinting that his team would fly even faster in the days to come.
"We're as fast as anybody in the field, and maybe even faster," he said. "We've been playing poker since last Monday, so we're ready to show a couple more cards (so) we'll see what happens."
Several witnesses were calling the pilot a hero because he maneuvered the plane away from the crowded grandstands at the last moment.
Ben Cissell said the plane crashed about 100 feet from where he was seated.
"I think that pilot in the last seconds pulled up because he saw the bleachers and saved about 200 or 300 others," Cissell said.
Kim Fonda said she also saw the plane streaking toward where she was seated in the grandstand.
"I closed my eyes and said, 'I am going to die now,' " Fonda said. "I was literally preparing to die and then he jerked the plane away and it landed like 25 feet from us. I want his family to know he was a hero."
Video of the crash, posted on YouTube, showed a plane plummeting from the sky, sending up clouds of dust and debris. Shocked spectators rose to their feet.
Another witness, Greg Mills, said the pilot "didn't have enough altitude to pull up," with the aircraft shuddering before slamming to the ground about 50 to 75 yards from where he was standing.
The plane, called the "Galloping Ghost," was taking part in a qualifying round in the "unlimited class" division of the air race when it went down around 4:15 p.m. PT Friday, said Mike Draper, the show spokesman. The final rounds had been slated for the weekend.
