Vintage plane crashes into crowd at Reno air races

Death toll on the ground is up to 9 now with 50 injured. I saw a video of the aftermath shot by a guy in the stands, there were a good dozen bodies laying around and a guy who had his leg cut off just sitting there. Pretty bad crash, right into the VIP box seats. Pilots on the ground are saying it looked like he had an elevator hanging loose and he pulled up to exit the race but the plane rolled over and nose dived into the VIP section just off the tarmac in front of the grandstands. If anyone wants to see the video the link is here:
http://cdn.livestream.com/grid/LSPl...cb4&time=&height=170&width=280&autoplay=false
Go to the 39 minute mark, there is about 12 minutes of raw uncut footage. Some of it is fairly graphic.
 
39.19 is were it happens. That camera man is the worst!!! Poor people never saw it coming.
 
Heart goes out to them but one thing that bugs me is that those planes were very very old. I think the crowd should of stayed further back. I wouldn't want to be up close if I knew those planes were just as old as when world war 2 pretty much started.

Very sad. I heard the pilot did try to swerve as much as he could to have less casualties. Very courteous move knowing what will happen to himself.
 
the planes are old, but most of the parts aren't. aircraft are maintained to a much higher standard than your car, and the odds of something breaking are really slim.
 
Of course, you need to maintain planes much more frequently than cars because the impact is much severe.

I still would not want to be that close. But that's my opinion. I'm fairly wary of these things.
 
I think most of the aircraft are actually kits, not originals. Air races run VERY low and do present a different kind of risk compared to air shows. Maybe they could raise the floor around the grandstand area, or possibly move the race course in a manner that puts the grandstands in the "infield". A friend of mine had tickets to those VIP box seats that got wiped out. He goes to the air races all the time but this year he decided to go to a regional club shoot our fireworks club takes part in every year.
 
I'm surprised it took this long. Lawyers truly are the scum of the earth.
 
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