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Reno air-crash toll rises to 9

Investigators say a part seemed to fall from the plane right before the crash.

A P-51 Mustang airplane approaches the ground immediately before crashing during an air show in Reno, Nev. The vintage World War II-era fighter plane piloted by Jimmy Leeward plunged into the grandstands during the annual air show. (Garret Woodson / Associated Press)
A P-51 Mustang airplane approaches the ground immediately before crashing during an air show in Reno, Nev. The vintage World War II-era fighter plane piloted by Jimmy Leeward plunged into the grandstands during the annual air show. (Garret Woodson / Associated Press)Read more
    by By Ken Ritter and Don Thompson, Associated Press, Inquirer
    Published 

RENO, Nev. - The death toll rose to nine Saturday in Reno's air-race crash as investigators determined that several spectators were killed on impact when the 1940s-era plane appeared to lose a piece of its tail before slamming into the crowded tarmac.

Moments earlier, thousands of spectators had looked skyward and watched planes speed by just a few hundred feet off the ground before some noticed a strange gurgling engine noise from above.

Seconds later, the P-51 Mustang dubbed the "Galloping Ghost" pitched oddly upward, twirled, and took an immediate nosedive into a section of VIP box seats. 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.

National Transportation Safety Board officials were on the scene Saturday to determine why Jimmy Leeward lost 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 a trim tab, which helps the pilot control the plane.

Reno police also provided a GPS mapping system to help investigators re-create the crash scene.

"Pictures and video appear to show a piece of the plane was coming off," NTSB spokesman Mark Rosekind said at a news conference. "A component has been recovered. We have not identified the component or if it even came from the airplane. . . . We are going to focus on that."

The dead so far included the pilot and eight spectators. Officials said 54 people were taken to hospitals and that more came in on their own. Eight remained in critical condition as of midday Saturday, and nine were in serious condition.

Witnesses and people familiar with the race said the toll could have been much worse had the plane gone down in the larger crowd area of the stands. The plane crashed in a section of box seats in front of the grandstand.

"This one could have been much worse if the plane had hit a few rows higher up," said Don Berliner, president of the Society of Air Racing Historians and a former Reno Air Races official. "We could be talking hundreds of deaths."

Some credit the pilot with preventing the crash from being far more deadly by avoiding the grandstand section with a last-minute climb, although it's impossible to know what he was thinking as he was confronted with the disaster and had just seconds to respond.

Witnesses described a horrible scene after the plane struck the crowd and sent up a brown cloud of billowing dust. When it cleared moments later, motionless bodies lay strewn across the ground, some clumped together, while victims stumbled around bloodied and shocked.

At an air show Saturday in Martinsburg, W. Va., a post-WWII-era trainer, a T-28 Trojan, crashed and burst into flames, killing the pilot.

The West Virginia Air National Guard said that no spectators were injured and that the crash site was far away from anyone at the show.