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3 killed in US air race crash

Xinhua, September 17, 2011

• At least three people were killed and 75 others were injured when an airplane crashed near grandstand at Reno Air Races in Nevada on Friday, local TV reported. The pilot was confirmed dead.

  At least three people were killed when an airplane crashed near grandstand at Reno Air Races in Nevada on Friday, local TV reported.

  
  
  

  Stephanie Kruse, spokeswoman for the Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority, said 25 people were critically injured and another 25 people were seriously injured in the crash, local TV KRNV reported. She added that the critically injured were considered to have life-threatening injuries.

  "This is a mass casualty situation," Mike Houghton, president and chief executive officer of the Reno Air Races, was quoted as saying.

  The plane was an Unlimited P 51 mustang and the pilot was identified as Jimmy Leeward from Florida, according to KRNV.

  Race spokesman Mike Draper said the World War II era fighter plane plunged into a box seat area at the front of the grandstand at about 4:30 p.m. local time during the popular annual air show, leaving a horrific scene of bodies and wreckage.

  Airport personnel and military evacuated other spectators, and several emergency vehicles were headed to the scene.

  The National Championship Air Races draws thousands of people every year in September to watch various military and civilian planes race.

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