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Reacts to death of friend in Reno crash.
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Showing posts with label
Reacts to death of friend in Reno crash.
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Reno Air Races, also known as the National Championship Air Races, take place each September at the Reno Stead Airport a few miles north of Reno, Nevada, USA. Air racing is billed as 'the world's fastest motor sport' and Reno is one of the few remaining venues.
History
Begun in 1964, the Reno Air Races feature multi-lap, multi-aircraft races between extremely high performance aircraft on closed ovoid courses which range between about 3 miles (Biplanes and Formula One) and about 8 miles (Jet, Unlimited) in length per lap.
The first Reno air races, in 1964 and 1965, were organized by World War II flying ace Bill Stead. They took place at Sky Ranch airfield, a dirt strip barely 2,000 feet (610 m) long, which was located in present-day Spanish Springs. After Stead AFB (20 miles to the west, and named in honor of Bill's brother, Croston Stead) was closed in 1966, that field was turned over for public use and the races have been held there since then.
Aircraft in the Unlimited class, which consists almost entirely of both modified and stock World War II fighters, routinely reach speeds in excess of 400 miles per hour. In 2003, Skip Holm piloted Terry Bland's modified P-51D Mustang, Dago Red, and reached an all-time speed record of 507.105 mph in a six-lap race around the eight-and-a-half mile course. The recently added Sport Class racers, mostly homebuilt aircraft, are already reaching speeds in excess of 350 mph. In 2009, Curt Brown set a record of 538 mph on his jet-engine L-29 Viper.
The Reno Air Races include several days of qualifying followed by four and a half days of multi-aircraft heat racing culminating in the Unlimited Class Gold Race on Sunday afternoon. The event also features civil airshow acts and military flight demonstrations between races, plus vendor areas and a large civil and military static aircraft display.
Classes and requirements
An F/A-18 Hornet sitting on the tarmac at the completion of the 2008 Reno Air Races.
Biplane
Two sets of wings
Formula One
engine-Continental O-200
wing area-66 square feet
empty weight-500 pounds or more
fixed landing gear
fixed pitch propeller
Sport
engine-reciprocating engine of 650 cubic inches or less
T-6
engine-Pratt & Whitney R-1340-AN-1 Wasp
Jet
no afterburner
less than 15 degrees of wing sweep
Unlimited
empty weight-4500 pounds or more
Deaths before 2011
From 1964 through 2010, 19 aviators lost their lives due to crashes and collisions in the course of the competition and airshow. In 2007, three pilots died over the course of four days in separate incidents. (Gary Hubler, Steve Dari, & Brad Morehouse).Racing was suspended for one day after the last of the three incidents.
2011 crash
All about: 2011 Reno Air Races crash
On September 16, 2011, a P-51D Mustang named "The Galloping Ghost", piloted by Jimmy Leeward, crashed near the stands during the Gold Heat of the race, killing Leeward and 8 spectators and injuring 69. Race organizers cancelled all remaining 2011 races after the accident.
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."
Crashes had whittled the expected field from 22 to five, with wreckage from at least a dozen aircraft at one point strewn about the French airfield.
But it did not deter between 300,000 to 500,000 from flocking to the Betheny Plain outside Reims for the final event, drawn by the rush of seeing planes turn, twist and race through the air -- and not deterred by the evident risk.
That account, from the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, was from 1909. More than 100 years later, air shows -- which may include air races -- continue to draw millions. In the process, they generate $110 million annually in the U.S. and Canada alone, according to John Cudahy, president of the International Council of Air Shows.
A spike this year in fatalities at such events has raised fresh questions about safety. But it has not detracted from the enthusiasm of many aviation enthusiasts, who still view such races as enthralling competitions.
"It's exciting, it's incredibly moving to see these airplanes do what they do and handle the way they are," said aviation analyst Jim Tilmon, himself a former pilot in the U.S. military and with American Airlines, who then compared it to its risks and thrills with auto racing and other sports.
Such danger was apparent Friday, when pilot Jimmy Leeward's P-51 aircraft plunged into spectators during a qualifying run at the National Championship Air Races and Air Show outside Reno, Nevada. Nine people -- including the pilot -- were killed, with many more injured.
A day later, U.S. Air National Guard Lt. Nate Nueller said an aircraft crashed at a show in Martinsburg, West Virginia, killing the pilot. Cudahy noted there had been at least 13 deaths at U.S. air shows this year -- after none for 2009 and 2010.
Mike Cummings, crew chief for the Blue Thunder racing team, watched Leeward's World War II-era plane fly over his head, invert, go into a loop, then slam into the ground. He called the crash "very traumatic (for) the very close-knit" air racing community, be they people such as himself who knew Leeward personally or other enthusiasts worldwide of the sport.
Still, he said it would not deter him from continuing to participate. Nor would he hesitate to bring family members, as he has done often in the past, to watch planes race.
"(My kids) love the air races," said Cummings. "They realize it's dangerous, that it's not a Sunday afternoon in the park."
Air races are sometimes a part of, but distinct from, "air shows," which generally are exhibitions in which pilots demonstrate aerobatics and other aerial moves.
What made this tragedy especially bad, according to Sharp, was the fact that the crash killed and injured spectators.
"The race pilots know going in what the risks are going in,"
Sharp said air races typically involved 8 different airplanes standing wing tip, to wing tip right before take off.
He said pilots had to have a competitive fire burning inside them, to be involved in this sport. Once you were air-borne, Sharp described it as being very "stressful."
"Your head is in a swivel, you're looking for everybody around you. Unlike a race car, air racing is three dimensional. You not only have someone next to you, you could have someone above you or below you," said Sharp.
With speeds exceeding 400 miles an hour, Sharp said it took a lot of dedication, commitment, and skill to be an air racer.
Sharp's wife Patricia Sharp described air show week as a nerve wracking one for spouses of pilots involved in the races.
"During that week you don't eat, you don't sleep, you're scared all the time," said Patricia Sharp.
What happened in Reno was their worst nightmare, playing out.
Sharp said ground crews spent hours checking out the planes from top to bottom several times before the race, but once the wheels lifted off the ground adrenaline, a competitive spirit, and lady luck were managing the controls.
"In this case Jimmy was really pushing the envelope very far. You never know why. Those planes are designed to go 400 miles an hour. He was going close to 500," said Sharp.
Officials are blaming the crash on a mechanical problem with the plane, but NTSB officials said it could take months before they can pin-point the exact cause of this plane crash.
