Mass Casualty Situation at Reno Air Races

[LockheedFix]

Reno Air Races Crash

It's been a rough time on the air show circuit lately...

[BADFNZ]

The death toll number has gone from 2 to 12 to 3, so who knows what it is.

Either way, sad day for aviation.

Edited September 17, 2011 by BADFNZ

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

According to the story I read it was Jimmy Leeward of Ocala FL flying the P-51 "Galloping Ghost"

him

[BQZip01]

Thoughts and prayers to the families of those killed/injured

[MKopack]

Have many friends that were at the races today, including two that were in the grandstand directly behind the impact point, both were uninjured, but have reported on a really terrible scene. Still awaiting status from several others. Reports from those there say that a following pilot reported an apparent mechanical failure with the Galloping Ghost prior to the accident.

[sputnik]

Huggy ok? Doesn't he always go?

[nsplayr]

Wow...I was just in Reno and folks I talked to there were excited for the air show. Condolences to all who were lost

[LL Windshear]

Huggy ok? Doesn't he always go?

He should still be downrange.

[HU&W]

Here's some video footage of the maneuvering leading up to the crash. Almost looks like a split-s at 3+10 in. Might want to turn down the volume and ignore the rest of the video though. The videographer's an idiot.

I was also up there just a few days ago talking with the very excited people. Sincere condolences to all involved, especially those who lost a loved one.

Edit: Pasted wrong vid. Replaced with the short clip of the one I meant to paste.

Edited September 17, 2011 by HU&W

[BADFNZ]

Here's some video footage of the maneuvering leading up to the crash. Almost looks like a split-s at 3+10 in. Might want to turn down the volume and ignore the rest of the video though. The videographer's an idiot.

I was also up there just a few days ago talking with the very excited people. Sincere condolences to all involved, especially those who lost a loved one.

I don't know what you're seeing, but I see nothing that looks remotely close to a split-s at 3:10.

Photo gallery: http://www.rgj.com/article/20110916/EVENTS05/110916036/Plane-crashes-Reno-National-Championship-Air-Races%27%20rel=%27nofollow

Pics of trim tab departing: http://www.kolotv.com/

Edited September 17, 2011 by BADFNZ

[HU&W]

I don't know what you're seeing, but I see nothing that looks remotely close to a split-s at 3:10.

Photo gallery: http://www.rgj.com/article/20110916/EVENTS05/110916036/Plane-crashes-Reno-National-Championship-Air-Races%27%20rel=%27nofollow

Pics of trim tab departing: http://www.kolotv.com/

Out of respect to the victims, I won't get into a debate over the mechanics of an aerobatic maneuver. It was never my intent to infer that any maneuvering was intentional. Thanks for the pics. They really show what would be a nightmare scenario for any pilot. Can't imagine the horror of those last few seconds, realizing exactly what's happening after 74 years of building SA. Just hope for a speedy recovery for those that can recover.

[Murph]

Here's to Jimmy Leeward, a P-51 legend.

[MacGyver]

Another crash at the Martinsburg WV airshow. hope everyone is okay, but it doesn't sound good.

[flynhigh]

Another crash at the Martinsburg WV airshow. hope everyone is okay, but it doesn't sound good.

Trojan Horsemen T-28 Crash at Martinsburg

[brewskis]

Trojan Horsemen T-28 Crash at Martinsburg

Jack Magan

Not sure what exactly happened yet.

Bad day for aviation.

[TrainerModel]

bummer

[Spur38]

I was there with an AH-1 Cobra for static display in the Heritage/Warbird section and would like to pass along a first-hand discription from Tim Brill, a long time aerobatics instructor at RTS:

Tims email to me:

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all who was involved. I hope the Air Races will continue in the future.

We were sitting in our box seat (B-20) and witnessed the entire event when Jimmy Leeward's P-51 Mustang hit the ground at about box seat B-34, about 100 feet away.  His airplane was running in third position during that part of the race.  The airplanes came abound pylon # 8 (on the west end of the airport, just above runway 08) and were flying about 500+ mph down the runway going from west to east.  We watched as the first 2 aircraft passed then noticed Jimmy's airplane make an abrupt climbing right turn towards the crowd and bleacher, climb very steep, "flutter" violently, then appear to roll knife-edge and come straight down into the box seat area.  When we determined that the trajectory of the airplane was not going to impact on us, we then "hit the ground" fearing the debris would cause injury.  As it turned out the debris went east, away from us.  As of now there are 9 confirmed dead (including the pilot) and over 50 injured (15 critical).  I'm sure the dead were directly in the impact area and the injured in debris field.  In my opinion, the crash was the result of a catastrophic control failure.  Some individual still pictures I saw seemed to show parts of the elevator control surface coming apart from the airframe prior to the accident. I think Jimmy tried all he could do to fly the airplane away from the crowd. 

In my opinion the "heros" were the ordinary civilian spectators who immediately took charge and began to stabilize the crash site.  Many of them were medical professionals. The initial reaction from the local law authorities was one of being overwhelmed and "barking orders" in some random, confused fashion. Lots of sirens, flashing lights and vehicles moving chaotic directions, but not much coordinated control. The on-site professional first responders were overwhelmed. They had minimal equipment and 4 or 5 "quad" vehicles.  Once the remote medical teams came on-site (within minutes), they continued with the initial triage already began by the civilians, and the response was then outstanding.  Of course, that's not what the governor and mayor and officials said.  They were all slapping each other on the back and saying what a great job each other did.  No one has mentioned the job the public did. 

Just after the impact Nicole and two friends ran into the impact area as first responders.  I wanted to account for our kids and all our friends, a few of whom were wandering in the box seat area.  After I was able to account for my group, I returned to the crash site.  I saw the impact "crater," and began to walk people out of the area to a safer location. A call went out over the loud spiked for anyone with a medical background to meet at a staging area and help with the scene.  Our two friends, Randy and Tye began crowd control at one of the entries into the crash scene and were telling potential volunteers where to go for additional instructions.  There were no police doing this job in this area (western entry into the box seats). Nicole was already "on-scene" and a bit frustrated that there were no first-aid bio hazard gloves available until after the remote medical teams arrived.  And also there were no cervical spine collars available (again until the remote teams arrived) and she had to move the victims to the different triage staging areas without first stabilizing the patients. There was one man standing taking pictures of the injured and deceased and Nicole kicked him out of the area.  Nevertheless she stayed there and tended to the victims until they were all evacuated to three different hospitals and she also helped clean up the area disposing everything in the biohazard bags (again, brought by the remote medical teams). The place was a big mess, there were bit and pieces of human remains and blood everywhere and the plane was in thousand pieces scattered everywhere. As soon as we got home, Nicole was able to wash all her clothes and shower.

Just wanted to let everyone know that there were more first responders than medics during the first 30 minutes of chaos. The event announcer did an outstanding job.  His instructions were calm, clear and concise.  He was a true professional. Those who think "the gov't" will save them are idiots, as it was ordinary citizens who stepped up when things were really bad and not the so-called rent-a-cops and -medics who gave the impression of being in charge but who couldn't cope when it mattered most (until the real professionals arrived to help the helping citizens). 

Tim Brill

[Archa3opt3ryx]

Thanks for that report, Spur38. Glad to know there's some good people in the world.

Edited September 21, 2011 by LoneWolf121188

[MKopack]

I was there with an AH-1 Cobra for static display in the Heritage/Warbird section and would like to pass along a first-hand discription from Tim Brill, a long time aerobatics instructor at RTS:

I saw the photos of the restored UH-1 that jumped in to transport victims to local hospitals after there were delays on the roads, and read that a local resident flew along to direct the flights. LoneWolf mentioned "good people in the world" and it seems there were quite a few at Reno that day.

[Gas Man]

Thought I'd pass this email along.

Ok... here's the skinny on the accident.... A P51 normally has two trim tabs.. one on each elevator... this one had one and other one was fixed in place.. He was warned about the forces being put on that one tab. It failed.. He had at least a 10G load when the plane pitched up from the loss of the trim tab and he went "nighty night" and probably never woke up.

Here's the “theory” of the crash from experienced racers.

In 1989 this type of thing happened to another pilot but he lived to tell the story. When flying a P-51 at 450+mph you need to have full nose down trim to keep the plane level. The elevator trim tab broke off and the aircraft imediately went in to a 10G climb, confirmed by the G-meter. The pilot came to, from the sudden blackout and realized he had slipped through the shoulder harness and was looking at the floor of the airplane. He was able to reach the throttle and pull it back to slow down and was able to recover and land.

Photo one is the airplane taxiing, note the pilots head in the canopy.

Fast forward to 2011

Photo two is typical oil canning as a result of the tremendous torque these engines put out at high power.

Photo four is a view of the left side (this may be photoshopped) nose down with the tail wheel extended and no view of the pilot. The tail wheel is held up by hydraulics only with no mechanical uplock, thus indicating a high G-force causing it to extend. Photos five and six are from the left side prior to impact, note no view of the pilot and the tail wheel extended. Photo seven is the debris just after the crash. To the right of center above the crowd it appears to be the wing with the leading edge down.

Photo three is a photo of GG upside down with a missing elevator trim tab. Note all you see is the back of the pilots head indicating he is being forced down in the cockpit.

A friend of mine was suppose to be there but didn't go and he has several friends in the hospital right now. The people were mostly hit by chunks of concrete, asphalt and aircraft debris. They were also hurt by the trampling of people getting out of the way.

Thanks. A couple of things to share.

1) Yes, GG had a single trim tab and unlike Strega (and Voodoo to a lesser extent) she did not have the wing/stab incidence mod to account for the nose up forces imparted at high-speed. I will share pix at a later date that show the amount of trim needed for GG v. Voodoo as well as one showing Strega running with zero trim.

2) I was able to view a small amount of the telemetry and here's what I saw.

a) he was pulling over 105" manifold at the time of the incident so he was honking right along, this tracks with our timing in the pits of lap speeds in the mid/high 480s

b) when the tab failed and began to separate (but before it had completely departed) the plane snapped up and the telemetry showed a jump from 3/3.5 normal to greater than 10.5+ (meter pegged) in less than 1.5s

c) when she reached the top of the arc, the engine faltered momentarily from fuel starvation (the 'burble' that lots of folks are talking about) then the prop unloaded and the engine went right back to full power. It was back to nearly 100" and increasing at the time of impact.

3) The tail-wheel did extend and the stress load needed to do this is greater than 8.5g

4) The pic of the a/c coming down, with no pilot and tail-wheel extended, is NOT p-shop. I know the photog who took it.

5) The incident with the prior a/c was in 1995, with Voodoo and the pilot was Bob "Hurricane" Hannah. When the tab departed (out around Pylon 3) the plane snapped up and climbed to over 9500ft. Bob did come to during the climb and was able to recover safely. He was pinned down in the cockpit, and in fact he had to unwind the seat to get his helmet free before he could begin flying the a/c. The difference this time was that GG had a lot higher-g snap and decelerated dramatically instead of continuing to climb and then rolled right, quite possibly because Jimmy was still holding/leaning on the stick.. I've attached a pic of the plane with the missing tab. I've got video of the incident at home also.

[Gas Man]

Pics described above

[Majestik Møøse]

Well there you go.