On September 16, 2011 at Reno Air Races, a North American P-51D Mustang hit the audience, killing the pilot and 10 people on the ground and injuring 69 others. The plane was named The Galloping Ghost and was flown by James K. "Jimmy" Leeward. It was the fourth deadliest air attack in US history, after an accident in 1972 and 1951.
Video 2011 Reno Air Races crash
Accident
Leeward, 74, and his Mustang, The Galloping Ghost, are in third place and have just reached pylon number 8 when the plane suddenly pitched high, rolled upside down, then flew down. The aircraft crashed into the asphalt at more than 400 miles per hour (650 km/h), in front of the grandstands in the area containing the seat box, and was destroyed.
Seven people, including pilots, were killed at the crash site; four died later in the hospital. The remaining weekend races at Reno Air Races were canceled.
A day after the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) began checking whether part of the empennage had been loose before the accident occurred. Photos taken just before the collision show the plane overturned and part of the left elevator trim tab is gone.
On October 21, 2011, a Federal accident investigator with the National Transportation Safety Council said that they had not found a readable onboard video in the middle of the ruins of a racing plane. However, they are still trying to extract information from an onboard data memory card found among broken aircraft components and other debris scattered over two hectares after the crash, as well as hundreds of photos and dozens of videos provided by the audience.
In 2012, NTSB released seven safety recommendations to apply to future air competitions. These include course design and layout, pre-race inspections, aircraft air modification airworthiness, FAA guides, g-force pilot awareness, and road safety.
Maps 2011 Reno Air Races crash
Aircraft
The Mustang, named The Galloping Ghost , is a highly modified military aircraft that in 2010 has been out of retirement after undergoing major modifications, including the removal of underground radiators and the installation of a "boil cooling" system, as well as modifications others are described by the owners as being designed to make aircraft more efficient. Former United States Air Force 44-15651 is owned by Aero Trans Corp., DBA in Ocala, Florida. The wings have been cut further 3Ã, ft (0.9 m) each side above a reduction of 4Ã, ft (1.2 m) in the previous range in his life.
The aircraft has a long history of successful competition in air races starting at National Air Races from 1946 to 1949 in Cleveland. The aircraft was flown by a series of pilots with various names, including "Miss Candace" from 1969 to 1978 and "Jeannie" in 1981.
Leeward calls the modification of a "radical plane." He says the oil system is similar to the oil cooling system in Space Shuttle. The canopy is about the size that is on the plane of Formula One. Modifications are intended to improve aerodynamics by reducing obstacles and hence increasing the top speed.
Previous incident
On September 18, 1970, the aircraft (later known as Miss Candace Race # 69) crashed while attempting an emergency landing caused by engine failure during the Reno Air Races year at Reno Stead Airport. During landing, longer aircraft propellers, modified for racing, cut off runway surfaces, causing aircraft to float on the edge of the runway, tearing down parts of the landing gear, causing only minor injuries to the pilot. Cliff Cummins.
In 1998, another modified P-51 Mustang, Voodoo Chile, lost the left trim tab during Reno Air Races. Pilot, "Hurricane" Bob Hannah, reported that the plane was high-pitched, subjecting it to more than 10 g and causing him to faint. When he realized, the plane had risen to more than 9,000 feet (2,750 m), and he took it to a safe landing.
In 1999, another highly modified P-51 called Miss Ashley II, which was piloted by Gary Levitz, suffered a flicker during an infinite race at Reno Air Races. The plane broke, killing Levitz.
The results of the investigation
NTSB thoroughly investigates the extensive modifications made to the aircraft. Modifications have made the aircraft lighter and reduce the resistance, but the stability decreases. Leeward boarded the plane to 530 mph (850 km/h) during the race, about 40 mph (65 km/h) faster than before. There is evidence of extreme pressure on the airframe shown by the buckling of the wing airframe and the gap that emerges between the fuselage and the canopy during flight (clearly visible in high-resolution photos taken by the audience).
However, the investigation, released in August 2012, found that the probable cause of the accident was reusable disposable lockathuts in the trim left lift trim tab system. This causes fatigue cracks in the attachment screw and allows the trim tab to vibrate. This flutter causes the tab assembling of the slim tab to fail causing the loss of aircraft control. Untested and undocumented modifications to the aircraft contributed to the accident. In particular, the right trim tab has been fixed. Should both tabs have operated, the loss of the left trim tab alone may not result in loss of control. When the trim tab fails, Leeward experiences 17 g that quickly paralyzes him and seems to make him unconscious.
See also
- Sknyliv airshow disaster
- the Ramstein airshow disaster
References
External links
- Emergency radio traffic recordings, including Reno EMS (REMSA), fire, and police
- The plane pulls out of the race and crashing
- Local professor 'shaken' after being hit by a racetrack in the air on video katu.com. September 20, 2011.
- Information about the aircraft (44-15651) at MustangsMustangs.com
- Check-Six.com - Fatal Accidents related to National Championship Air Races
- End of NTSB Accident Brief AAB-12/01
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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