Reno Air Race Crash Kills and Injures Scores of Spectators

[Gerard]

BREAKING NEWS now on CNN: reporting plane crash at Nevada Air Show and Fire Officials are saying multiple fatalities and serious injuries. Amateur video showed an aircraft veering off and possibly hitting on or near a grandstand area.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700179817/Plane-crashes-near-grandstand-at-Nevada-air-show.html?s_cid=rss-5

[Gerard]

CNN saying it was a P-51 Mustang "The Galloping Ghost" that crashed. FAA already on scene.
And already the question asked by Anderson Cooper to a guest on the phone "How safe are these airshows"?? OY!!

[NIKV69]

Modified P-51. Tweets all over the place. Unconfirmed 25 critical wounded. Many more injured and 12 deaths.


"How safe are these airshows"?? OY!!

Cooper is really horrible. Total ratings *****.

[Gerard]

http://www.ktvn.com/story/15483678/plane-crash-at-air-races-at-reno-stead-airport

[NYCA News]

NYCAviation:

Reno Air Show Crash Kills and Injures Scores of Spectators (http://nycaviation.com/2011/09/reno-air-show-crash-kills-and-injures-scores-of-spectators/)

As many as 12 people were killed and 75 injured Friday afternoon when a plane taking part in the Reno Air Races crashed into a spectator seating area, according to preliminary reports.
[Click to Read Full Article (http://nycaviation.com/2011/09/reno-air-show-crash-kills-and-injures-scores-of-spectators/)]

[NIKV69]

The video is amazing. Was just on the phone with Dave Budd who was there and just had left before it happened. Insane!

[gonzalu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTzX35wOGas

[mirrodie]

Sad to hear. I was just looking at their website last night for race info. Looks like hte end of air races are here.
First Red Bull, now this.

[gonzalu]

If not the end, the circuits will be VERY FAR from the crowds for sure... it may affect Airshows as well... :frown:

[moose135]

Just watched the news conference from Reno. Latest update has three dead (pilot plus two spectators) and 54 injured.

[cancidas]

Sad to hear. I was just looking at their website last night for race info. Looks like hte end of air races are here.
First Red Bull, now this.

there's been talk of shutting down reno for years and i hope this isn't the end. from what i remember the showline and the stands are separated by a lot of room. same for airshows. glad i was there and got to experience the real reno air races before this happened.

[Perriwen]

Modified P-51. Tweets all over the place. Unconfirmed 25 critical wounded. Many more injured and 12 deaths.



Cooper is really horrible. Total ratings *****.

Like it or not, that's the question probably 90% of the people who see the story will ask. Not everyone's a total aviation buff like us who knows these things.

[PhilDernerJr]

As I said on facebook, most people in this world take aviation for granted, even complaining about it when they do fly. Then you get people who go out to CELEBRATE aviation, and tragically get killed or injured. So sad. :(

[moose135]

Like it or not, that's the question probably 90% of the people who see the story will ask. Not everyone's a total aviation buff like us who knows these things.
There are a lot of people within the aviation community asking that same question today. The only way to continue having air shows and races is to make sure they are as safe as can be, both for participants and spectators. If safety isn't your primary concern, you should probably be doing something else.

[Gerard]

Like it or not, that's the question probably 90% of the people who see the story will ask. Not everyone's a total aviation buff like us who knows these things.

And to be fair it wasnt only Cooper. I was clicking on Fox and MSNBC and their hosts were asking the aviation "experts" the same "Are air shows safe" questions. Our own Hometown paper
the NY Daily News on their web edition has "MASSACRE" in the headline of the air show story. :confused::frown:

[gonzalu]

WTF? Are they safe? Geesh, why not actually GO TO ONE and ACTUALLY REPORT like you were taught (or not) in Journalism... How about doing some real investigative reporting and find out for yourself? Safe? Laughable reporting really.

As for safety itself, I have noticed it actually get safer every year and I can prove it through my photos as the flight line gets further and further away from the crowd every year.

Finally, one of my die-hard Republican PRO-WAR buddies argues with me day in and day out how war is necessary and losing our friends and family overseas in foreign wars is a necessity in our time, tell me to my face that airshows are the dumbest thing ever and wrought with danger! :confused: Go figure!

[Fighting_falcon_51]

First I would like to say my thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the pilot and the spectators.

I haven't been to that many different airshows but I have to say I never felt unsafe at any point during an airshow.

One thing that I have noticed though is that there have been more safety concerns with AIR RACES. If you go on this Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/groups/redbullairracestop/?id=276280855733026) a person who claims to be an ex-GmbH employee cites major safety concerns for the reason why RBAR was stopped. RBAR had a bad year last year with planes stalling hitting the water, and a prop strike. I'm not saying what happened at Reno is necessarily the fault of the organization or the pilot, but from what I have inferred it looks to ME that air races have a slightly higher inherent risk. That is purely my opinion though because I do not have any concrete
facts to support it.

Also I think this will be the end of air races for years or even decades. No one is going to want to insure an air race and I don't know if people are going to WANT to go to air races because of the news replaying the P-51 hitting the crowd over and over. This will also increase the insurance rates for warbirds and airshows adding a greater financial burden to the pilots and organizations.

According to ICAS there hasn't been a spectator death since 1952 (and the person wasn't even invited to the airshow!) wether they will still use that statistic is questionable since it was technically not an airshow, but regardless there were two spectator deaths at a MAJOR aerial event.

[Gerard]

There are some amazing pictures coming out now including one that shows the plane coming down seconds before impact.

http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=J7&Date=20110916&Category=EVENTS05&ArtNo=109160802&Ref=PH&Profile=1459

[Gerard]

I read that the Huey that was shown in the pictures medevacing out the injured is a "warbird" ship. If so that is a great job by those men jumping in to get the injured out quickly.

[gonzalu]

http://www.fox19.com/category/195974/video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6262525

[cancidas]

I read that the Huey that was shown in the pictures medevacing out the injured is a "warbird" ship. If so that is a great job by those men jumping in to get the injured out quickly.

sure looks like a warbird with tube and cloth seats in the crew chief position.

id've done the same in thier position!

[Gerard]

sure looks like a warbird with tube and cloth seats in the crew chief position.
id've done the same in thier position!

Do they still have the plan in effect to call in private helicopters in case of a major disaster? I know they actually practiced this at FRG some years back. Many of the big companies
around here had their aircraft involved. We are very lucky around here (Tri-State area) with many police, EMS, military rotor assets available but you never know.