RENO, Nev. — The fans come here each year looking
for, even craving, the thrill they say they get only from seeing planes
race at speeds of more than 400 miles per hour. At a small airport at
the edge of the city, they tilt their heads skyward for hours,
relishing each roar overhead.
And as fans trickled in Monday to line up at the
memorial that had cropped along the fence along the airport, a tribute
to those who died after a plane
crashed into the crowd Friday, they said they were determined to make sure that air races would go on again here next year.
Hospital officials said Monday that a 10th person
had died from the crash in which a P-51 Mustang nosedived into the
crowd at the
National Championship Air Races and Air Show at Reno-Stead Airport. Four other patients were in critical condition at local hospitals.
But the crash did not deter the fans, who came to
the memorial with a steely somberness. It was a freakish accident, they
said, a one-in-a-million thing. Attending these races is dangerous,
sure, they said, but so is driving. What should change? For the most
part, they replied, absolutely nothing.
“The show must go on, even with something this
tragic,” said Anna Marie Murphy, 44, who has come to the races since
she was a child, when her family had a passion for building and flying
small planes. She knew eight people who died in plane accidents,
including her aunt and uncle, she said.
“I know that people die in this,” she said. “I
don’t want it to happen, but I know I have to accept it might. And
anyone who comes here better know it, too.”
Each year some 200,000 people attend the event, in
which planes race around an eight-mile course. With a combination of
air acrobatics and high speeds, the race is far more adrenaline pumping
than air shows and car races. Many of the most ardent fans are pilots
themselves, who know well the dangers.
“You are open to a certain kind of experience if
you come here,” said Ross Kallenberger, a private pilot in Bakersfield,
Calif., who saw the crash. He motioned to the vintage planes taking
off at that moment. “Can you feel them? How often do you come to an
event that you can actually physically feel through your body? There’s
nothing like it.”
For the last 17 years, Bob Johnson and Scott
Koerner, retired pilots, have come to the event with their wives. The
couples, who also witnessed the accident, wore their custom-made polo
shirts, with stitching in the back declaring them air race “junkies.”
This year, the Koerners paid for their daughter and her husband to fly
from Nashville to see the show for the first time. Their son-in-law,
Ben Cissell, photographed scenes of the crash that were shown on the
“Today” show on Monday.
They thought about the risks now and then,
especially when an accident in 2007 scattered debris through the field,
in one of three accidents that killed pilots that year.
“You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to realize that there are risks to coming here,” Mr. Johnson said.
His wife, Jan Johnson, believes strongly that the
races should continue, and she said she was certain she would return to
watch them. “This is a completely one-of-a-kind event, and we love
every minute of it,” she said.
The fans were already anticipating new regulations.
Would officials try to move the race to a less populated area? Would
they place the course farther away from the stands?
But they dismissed those options. Moving a course a
mile or two away would hardly matter given the speed of the planes,
they reasoned. And being farther away from the city would only increase
the risk of spectators getting into car accidents, they said.
The only opening for change may have to come from
pilots themselves, said Dennis Gleason, 70, a retired plane mechanic
who spent years working for Boeing. The pilot of the plane that
crashed, Jimmy Leeward, was 74 and an experienced stunt pilot. Still,
Mr. Gleason said, pilots should consider creating a self-imposed age
limit.
“You can lose some of your sharpness, some of your
reflexes,” Mr. Gleason said. “Those maneuvers are sharp and precise.
I’m sure he was an excellent pilot, but you can’t help but wonder if he
was alert enough to notice the smallest mistake.”
Ike Shim, 63, traveled from Tokyo for the last
seven years to watch the race. The way he sees it, changing the race
would be akin to a philosophical defeat.
“Any kind of endeavor that is about human progress
is going to have some risk,” Mr. Shim said. “That’s how we move forward
and advance. If we stop taking risks, we stop living.”
At least one message left at the memorial seemed to echo Mr. Shim’s sentiment.
“Jimmy’s flying with the best of ’em now,” the card
read. It ended with the motto of the Reno races. “Let’s honor him the
best way we can: fly low, fly fast and turn left.”
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UPDATED: 10:52 pm MDT September 5, 2011
