Pat Dollard

Tweet

New York Times:

RENO, Nev. — Nine federal investigators arrived from Washington on Saturday at the site of a deadly air show accident just north of Reno to help determine why a vintage plane crashed into a crowd on Friday afternoon, killing at least two people, including the pilot, and maiming dozens of spectators.

The accident, at the National Championship Air Races and Air Show, a popular annual attraction that draws thousands each year, injured more than 50 people, at least 15 of them critically, said Stephanie Kruse, a spokeswoman for the Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority in Reno. Three hospitals received patients, Ms. Kruse said, including some with severed limbs.

On Friday night, Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada visited the scene of the crash at Reno-Stead Airport, a small general aviation outpost in the hills north of the city, and offered prayers for the victims and their families. “I know every member of the Nevada family is thinking tonight of those we have lost and those we cherish,” Mr. Sandoval said in a statement.

Air race officials identified the pilot as Jimmy Leeward, 74, a real estate developer who had flown in the event many times. According to his Facebook page, Mr. Leeward, of Ocala, Fla., had more than 30 years of flight experience. He had been flying a P-51 Mustang, a World War II-era fighter nicknamed the Galloping Ghost.

Whether the death toll would increase was uncertain, but the shock of the accident was still palpable on Saturday morning, as witnesses and race participants struggled to make sense of what had happened. “We’re here to entertain,” said David Costa, a pilot and owner of one of the event’s competing airplanes. “We’re here to get their heart pumping a little bit. We’re not here to kill them.”

Mr. Costa had been about 100 yards from site of the crash when Mr. Leeward’s plane suddenly shot skyward at about 4:20 p.m. Cameron Mason, an airplane mechanic with another flight team, said the plane then spun and fell nose first to the ground, crashing into a seating area in front of the main grandstand.

“He just went straight up and made an abrupt turn and came straight down,” Mr. Mason said. “And he crashed into an area where I was hoping there wouldn’t be a big crowd of people. But there was.”

Videos showed a row of small planes flying over the crowd when suddenly a thin plume of brown smoke burst from the back of Mr. Leeward’s plane, which almost immediately shot to the ground. In one video, the camera found the plane a moment later in a sea of people, a trail of debris spread along the tarmac.

Mr. Mason said that he and other aircraft mechanics at the show speculated that Mr. Leeward’s plane might have had a failure of its trim tab, a critical part of the tail’s controls, possibly leading to a more catastrophic failure. “If it flutters enough,” he said, “your flight controls can rip off.”

Theories like that were still conjecture as a team of nine investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington arrived Saturday morning. “We’re just starting our on-scene phase of the investigation,” said Terry Williams, a spokesman for the safety board.

Mark R. Rosekind, a safety board member, said three regional investigators were already at the scene.

Mike Houghton, president and chief executive of the Reno Air Racing Association, which sponsors the races, said at a news conference on Friday night that the cause was still under investigation but appeared to have been mechanical, a “problem with the aircraft that caused it to go out of control.” The rest of the air show, which normally spans several days and includes dozen of events, was canceled.

Mr. Houghton described Mr. Leeward as a “talented, qualified” pilot who had done a lot of stunt flying for movies. He was also, Mr. Houghton said, a “close personal friend.”

“Jimmy was Jimmy,” he said.

In an interview on Thursday with Live Airshow TV, a broadcaster of aviation events, Mr. Leeward stood by the Galloping Ghost and talked about the coming shows.

“We’re as fast as anybody in the field or maybe even a little faster,” he said. “We’ll see on Friday what happens.”

The crash was the latest in a series of deadly accidents at air shows this year. Last month, an aerial stuntman plunged 200 feet to his death as he tried to perform a plane-to-helicopter stunt in Harrison Township, Mich. Standing on the wing of a small plane, he twice grabbed the skid of a helicopter and fell on the third try. Days earlier, a pilot was killed in Kansas City, Mo., as his plane spiraled into a fiery crash at an air show.

Promoters bill the Reno show as a chance to see the “world’s fastest motor sport,” with planes exceeding 500 miles an hour. The races are run essentially like those at a car track, and planes fly as low as 50 feet, often nearly touching the wingtips of other planes.

The proximity of the planes is part of the attraction for fans, and the show’s Web site uses the slogan “Always remember to fly low, fly fast and turn left!” Promotional materials boast about extended free falls and “uninhibited, high-speed performances.”

Early Saturday, floodlights were still illuminating the point of impact at the airfield, even as a usually buoyant group of spectators — who fill parking lots with RVs and tents, as well as impromptu parties — were quiet.

Deaths of competitors in the Reno air races are not unheard-of. In 2007, three pilots died in three crashes over four days — one when his plane stalled shortly after takeoff, another when his jet crashed during a race and the third after colliding with another pilot. In 2008, a pilot died when the wings fell off her home-built plane during practice, the 19th death in the history of the races, which started in 1964.

But Mr. Costa, the owner of a plane competing in the race, said Friday’s accident was different.

“We fly fast aircraft, close to the ground,” he said. “We sign up for that. But nobody wants to see anybody in the crowd get hurt.”

Jesse McKinley reported from Reno, and Elizabeth A. Harris from New York City. Ian Lovett and Jennifer Medina contributed reporting from Los Angeles.