Looking for Answers After Reno Air Show Crash
Investigators work in Nevada, and another plane crashes at a W. Va. airshow
The death toll in Friday's air race crash in Reno has risen to nine, with dozens critically injured.
Onlookers praised the pilot, saying it appeared that Jimmy Leeward, 74, who was killed in the crash, had maneuvered his P-51 Mustang at the last moment to avoid crashing into a grandstand. But the damage was catastrophic nonetheless.
From CNN:
The New York Times has more on what, exactly, air-racing is. Answer: what it sounds like. Airplanes, circling at high speed, at close proximity to each other.
As federal investigators work privately on their investigation, speculation is public. A mechanic at the field in Reno told The Times that he and his colleagues had already begun mulling possible causes of the disaster. The mechanic said the group had "spent the hours after the crash speculating that Mr. Leeward might have suffered a failure of his trim tab, a critical part of the tail’s controls, possibly leading to a more catastrophic failure."
"If it flutters enough," he told The Times, "your flight controls can rip off."
The video is jarring. It's below.
Update: As if one tragedy wasn't enough, a WW-II era plane crashed Saturday at an air show in West Virginia, erupting into a ball of flame but apparently injuring no spectators on the ground, Reuters reported.
The plane was one of six T-28s flying in formation when it appeared to clip the ground and crash, eyewitnesses said.