Residents want air races moved after second fatal crash in two years

Sunday, Sept. 19, 1999 | 11:30 a.m.

For the second year a row, a small plane crashed into a Lemmon Valley neighborhood near the Reno-Stead Airport, narrowly missing homes and children playing nearby on Saturday.

The pilot, Gary Levitz, 61, Grand Prairie, Texas, was killed. A young girl on the ground was treated after she was hit in the finger by flying shrapnel, said Tom Medland, a spokesman for the county's airport authority.

"I saw an explosion. Then I saw this big old piece hit the trailer," said Jeremy Chatman, 10, who was playing with a paper airplane in his back yard when he looked up and saw the real thing rolling and heading for his house.

Seconds later, the cockpit and Levitz crashed into a motor home behind him and two other children, 4 and 5.

His mother, Fabiola Chatman, said debris punched several fist-sized holes into her home and broke two windows. "My first thought was, 'Thank God the kids weren't taken out by the plane,"' she said.

Robert Downs and wife Shirley were playing cards in their house when a chunk of engine skidded to a stop just a few feet from their window.

"We looked around and saw our yard littered with engine parts," Robert Downs said. "This one was too close for comfort."

Last year's fatal crash occurred in the same neighborhood of Lemmon Valley, about 12 miles north of Reno.

"This is the second aircraft that has crashed within 300 yards of my house," Shirley Downs said. "They should not be over a residential area."

The races draw tens of thousands of visitors to the area each September, providing a big economic boost to local hotels, casinos and other businesses.

"Anything that is good for the community I'm all for. But there has to be some limits," said Jim Watts of Lemmon Valley, who also would prefer it if organizers find a new flight course over the desert, away from homes surrounding the airport.

"My grandchildren play out here. I'm afraid I'm going to have my house destroyed by an airplane or debris,' he said.

Levitz - whose family once owned the Levitz furniture stores - was flying in the last championship heat Saturday when his P-51 Mustang plane broke apart in the air, Medland said. Federal authorities still were investigating the crash.