A gruesome crash today at the Reno Air Races. Galloping Ghost (shown here), a modified P-51 Mustang, somehow got out of control and plowed straight into the crowd.
There have been crashes at Reno before, but I don’t think there’s ever been one that involved spectators. Especially one described as a “mass casualty event”.
I’ve always wanted to see the Unlimited class races in person, but this graphically illustrates the risks of being so close to a flock of souped-up WWII fighters (already hot rods in their own right) that are zorching around at 500 knots down in the weeds. When things go wrong, they go wrong fast.
Please pray for the accident victims and their families.
UPDATE: Looking back at this post, I realize “somehow got out of control” was a poor choice of words since there’s no way to isolate a cause this soon. Apparently there was a mayday call, and witnesses this morning say that it looked as if he was steering away from the crowd at the last second. If he’d hit the bleachers, this would have been much, much worse.
The Chiles Files 