[September 20, 2011] Tragic day at Reno air races recalled by Modestan Tweet Sep 20, 2011 (The Modesto Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- James Lawson stood on a lift 40 feet in the air to watch the air races in Reno last week. He and three friends from Modesto had flown to Nevada for the National Championship Air Races and Air Show, and Friday's last contest was the one they most wanted to see. "These were the most heavily modified, fastest planes of the day," Lawson said Monday. He shot video as each plane flew by about a quarter-mile away. As the third pilot, James Leeward, entered the frame in his souped-up P-51 Mustang fighter, something clearly went awry. "One of the guys who was with us heard a pop when the plane came around the corner," Lawson said. "I saw it kind of bobble. The nose went up and down." Though that kind of movement is unusual, Lawson -- a commercial-rated pilot with a degree in aeronautical engineering -- attributed it to wind, which had been affecting the planes all day. Then the plane went into a barrel roll, Lawson said, before crashing into the crowd, killing Leeward, 74, a stunt pilot, and people on the ground. The death toll from the worst accident ever at an air race grew Monday to 10, as another injured person died late Sunday, Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Jamii Uboldi said. Authorities said 70 people were treated at hospitals, and four remained in critical condition. Officials released the names of two people who died: Regina Bynum, 53, of San Angelo, Texas, and Sharon Stewart, 47, of Reno. Officials have yet to identify three of the dead. Yet it could have been far worse, officials said. The plane crashed at the edge of the crowd, narrowly missing the grandstand where thousands more people were watching. Spectators were sprayed with aviation fuel, but the plane did not explode, and its fuel did not catch fire. Looked at plane earlier that day Lawson and his friend Geoff Branson had stopped to look at the plane, the Galloping Ghost, earlier in the day. Branson photographed it. "I love to take pictures of aircraft like that," Branson said. The plane had been so heavily modified, Branson and Lawson discussed whether it was a P-51. "It was almost unrecognizable from its original form," Lawson said. The canopy was shaved off and the "air scoop" underneath had been removed. The scoop is used to cool the radiator in the P-51, one of the few planes that has one, Lawson said. And the plane's wingspan had been shortened. "This was a resurrection event for Leeward with a new engine and innovations to the P-51 that were going to put him in the lead or near the top of this class," wrote another race attendee, Lonny Davis, in a column that appears in today's Bee. Branson pointed out that even though the plane had been significantly altered, Federal Aviation Administration inspectors had cleared it to fly. After the plane hit the ground, the scope of the tragedy was immediately obvious. "We knew there were mass casualties when (the announcer) was asking for people with formal medical training," Lawson said. The investigation into what caused the plane to crash continued Monday. In an interview with a cable news station, National Transportation Safety Board member Mark Rosekind said investigators were analyzing the "tremendous amounts of material" collected at the scene and submitted by spectators who photographed and videotaped the crash. A key focus of the investigation is the tail of the high performance aircraft, which some photos seem to show lost a part before the crash. "There are a lot of photos of specific aspects of the tail," Rosekind said. "We have found in the wreckage some parts of tail from the accident aircraft. We have those photos." Though they agreed with organizers' decision to cancel the rest of the air event, Lawson and Branson said they hope the races continue next year and beyond. "It was one of my best airshow experiences up until 4:20 that afternoon," Lawson said. Magnitude of crash sinks in As Lawson and Branson returned to the Reno airport to fly home Friday, they met with pilots coming in for the races. They told them about the crash and the likely cancellation of the remainder of the show. The realization of what happened dawned on the friends as they made their way back to Modesto. And it left them shaken. "We were all numb," Lawson said. "Needless to say, some of the guys in the back seat had a spare bottle of libations that helped them calm down a little bit." The Associated Press contributed to this report. ___ (c)2011 The Modesto Bee (Modesto, Calif.) Visit The Modesto Bee (Modesto, Calif.) at www.modbee.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]