Yet another air show disaster

[Canada Darrell™]

As much as I love planes and anything related to flight I made a personal decision many years ago to never attend an air show of any kind. My hearts go out to the victims.

[David]

  Sorry to all effected by this tragic accident.

[cosworth151]

Reno isn't an air show. Reno is a race. Judging by what I've seen in videos, the course was way too close to the stands. There is no way a turn towards the spectator area should have been anywhere near that close, IMO. The NTSB is investigating.

I've been to many, many airshow. I've been a spectator, I've flown in them & I've help put them on. If they are properly staged, attending one is as safe or safe or safer than attending an auto race.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/09/17/reno_police_say_9_people_killed_in_reno_air_crash/

[Scott]

Wow - I was at the Breitling Air Show today with my kids.  It was a fantastic show (unfortunately bad weather, so we didn't get to see 'Jet Man' which would have been the kids highlight).  This show was at an airfield located in a town (houses on every side) and the planes were flying every which way over the crowd.  Had there been an accident like that, there would very likely have been many fatalities. 

I was at an airshow in my late teens in Ottawa when almost the exact same thing happened to a P-51 flying there, but it crashed in a nearby golf course (about 100m from some golfers as it turned out later), nowhere near the crowd.  The pilot was the only casualty then.  They don't have the possibility here to stage them any safer thanks to the lay of the land.  There is also a major highway about 200m alongside the airfield. 

As much as it is amazing to watch machines in the air do amazing things, they have to come down one way or another...

[lkjohnson1950]

The pilot was in his 70s and an experienced air racer. Expert observers were thinking he had a mechanical problem of some sort and tried to pull up and away from the crowd but couldn't complete the manoeuver. These kind of pylon races were quite popular during the 20s and 30s but died out because of accidents like this one. I believe Nevada is the only state that will allow them.

[Scott]

And yet another one...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-09-18/wva-air-show/50455068/1

[cosworth151]

Here's an update on the reno crash, from AOPA:

http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2011/110919reno-accident-probe-examines-memory-cards-telemetry.html?WT.mc_id=110923epilot&WT.mc_sect=gan

I agree with Rep. Graves' statement in the blue box on the right.