Air race safety questioned after Reno crash

(CBS News) 

Late summer is a popular time for air shows and races, and many fans are drawn to the spectacle of high flight, breakneck speeds, and daredevil aerial acrobatics.

But two crashes over the weekend - one at an air race in Reno, Nev. and the other at an air show in West Virginia, left both pilots and nine spectators dead, and dozens of others injured.

They also left some people asking whether the air races have become too dangerous, reports CBS News correspondent Karen Brown.

"The objective, really, is to go as fast as possibly just as in any type of race," points out CBS News aviation safety expert Mark Rosenker, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. "The problem is, when you begin to go as fast as possible, you really do reach the edge of the safety envelope."

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Twenty-five-year-old Noah Joraanstad barely survived the crash are the race in Reno, Nev., that killed nine people in all.

"When that thing started coming down, I couldn't believe it. I was like, 'I'm gonna die. I'm gonna start running.' And then, I reached around and touched my back, and that's when I realized I'd been cut open."

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Deadly crash at Reno air races

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Shrapnel had torn into Joraanstad's back, narrowly missing his lung and kidneys. He was covered in aviation fuel, which burned his skin.

Joraanstad, a pilot himself, says the races may need to end, telling CBS News, "I love the flying. I'm going to hate for it to go away, but with this kind sort of casualties, it sorta has to, I think."

On "The Early Show" Monday, he told co-anchor Chris Wragge from his hospital bed, "This was a very, very freak accident., and I think that, particularly with Reno, it's going to be almost impossible for this to go on anymore. It is dangerous, and when that many people get their lives taken away, it is pretty hard to justify continuing an event like that."

At that Reno International Air Race, a World War II-era plane plunged to the ground in front of a crowd of spectators.

Now, the NTSB is looking into whether pilot error or faulty equipment could have played a role.

Veteran racer and Hollywood stunt pilot Jimmy Leeward had just rounded a turn at a speed of up to 500 mph Friday when disaster struck.

As NTSB investigators combed through the wreckage over the weekend, officials said they may be close to finding the cause.

"They have identified and recovered portions of the accident aircraft tail," the NTSB's Mark Rosekind told reporters.

The tail is key because photos show that, just seconds before the plane plummeted to the ground, a piece of the tail section was missing -- something that could have caused the pilot to lose control.

Memory cards from an onboard camera and data recorder were also recovered and sent to Washington, D.C. for analysis.

The vintage bomber that crashed bore little resemblance to its original self after being rebuilt to achieve the extreme levels of speed required in an air race. Investigators are also looking into whether or not these modifications could have played a role in Friday's accident.

The Friday crash was followed by another deadly accident at an air show in West Virginia, in which the pilot was the lone fatality.

[samXXkiley]

coucou,
it may be time to stop these killer races
it is also necessary to find the cause of such accidents which are repeated
"au revoir"

[FM2436]

again, according to the statistics easily found on the US Federal Highway Administration's webpage 411,266 people were killed in automobile accidents between 2000 and 2009 (33,808 in 2009 alone). Maybe we should ban automobiles

[rb143]

Air racing is no more dangerous than NAS CAR. How many times has a car gone into the crowd in the past and yet, its still a major pass time and national sport. People who suggest its a killer sport are uneducated and have no concepts of reality in the aviation world. More people are killed every day in car accidents in the state of California, than die in aviation accidents over a 5 year period.

[pak31]

Any adult that attends an event like this KNOWS that there is a chance of getting hurt. It's a slim chance but it's there. This might sound bad but just because people died, doesn't mean it should end. If you don't want to be in danger then don't go to events that pose risks like this. Most people just don't think that anything is going to go wrong. Everytime an airplane goes up in the air it has a risk of crashing but that doesn't stop millions from flying every day. Warnings ahead of time are the best bet, if they still choose to go then that is their risk.

[tsigili]

No races are safe.......not air, not car, not boat......speed is dangerous, not only for the racers, but for all of the spectators as well.

Even horse races, have resulted in serious injury to bystanders.

[difiyah]

All public gatherings must be banned, because they're not safe!
I think there are many on here who can see where this is going. The powers that be want to eventually have us all locked up in our homes and cubicles, watched, tagged and irradiated like good little slaves. We'll all be like Winston Smith, crammed in our little corners with drones flying about our windows in place of the copter.

[ToolMangler1]

Women should be clothed 'head to toe' in shape-hiding cloth. That way 'male' drivers will not be distracted from their safe operation of the vehicle they are driving..
OOOOPPPPPPSSS!!!!!! I forgot! thats the way it is in much of the Muslim world.. Ohhh!!! welll!!! Anything is OK to keep those precious men from 'SINNING'...... ROFLMAO!!!!!! OOOppsss pardon my French!!

[mecanik-2009]

I suppose we can all go home and hide our heads under the covers or we can go on with life and except that there are risks involved with living. If we use a little common sense here we can conclude that your chances of being struck by a plane falling out of the sky is pretty minimal compared to the other risks you take everyday going to work or mowing your lawn. Thousands of people are killed every year on their way to work and hundreds are seriously injured mowing their lawns by picking up the lawn mower while it's running or the blades break and they fly off and smack you in the head or they fall off a ladder and break their arms cleaning gutters. Life is a risk and it didn't have any risks it wouldn't be any fun now would it.

[FleetNavalAviator]

Wzrd1 - That a/c that went through the fence and into the Farrell's ice cream parlor was in Sacramento and it was an F-86. Interesting, when I saw the flicks of this P-51 having gone in, I also thought of that accident in Sacramento.

[outwestbutnotca]

Well, it was inevitable that someone would take the position that the air races need to end. I guess that means ending NASCAR, hockey and every other sport where casualties happen. Better yet, wrap us up in bubble wrap and make us stay home. How about we just accept that accidents happen and we take our chances? BTW, where are the medivac helocopter chasing lawyers in all of this? Strangely silent so far, don't you think? If anything kills the air races it will be litigation.

[Wzrd1]

So, it's no longer safe to be within visual range of aircraft, per some.
OK, all airports must also close. Can't risk airliners coming in on residential neighborhoods.
We'll have to get rid of cars, 40000 Americans die on the highways per year, FAR riskier than being at or in an airshow.

OK, now that the absurd is out of the way.
Since 1910, there have been 15 accidents that caused fatalities, including one what was caused by a jet's failure to take off, overran the end of the runway, took out the chain link fence and landed in an ice cream shop across the street.

[ZunarJ59]

Really? How many government workers did it take to figure that crashing a plane into a grandstand full of spectators wasn't "safe"?

[Wzrd1]

Actually, how is it safe or unsafe? What is the acceptable risk?
The aircraft are 1/4 MILE from the spectators. Should we increase it to where the race cannot be seen?
Every form of race has killed spectators, even horse races. Should we ban ALL races?
40000 Americans die each year in auto accidents, should we ban automobiles?
Airliners have fallen or dropped parts into neighborhoods, resulting in deaths. Ban all commercial aviation?
At what point do you accept a minimal risk?
Or do we abandon all forms of travel and live in bunkers?