Air Race sponsors may consider changing course after crash

Monday, Sept. 20, 1999 | 8:28 a.m.

"We're taking a very serious look at possibilities. But I don't think that with an event as important to the economy as the air races that moving it would be our first choice," said Jack Walther, board chairman of the Reno Air Races Association.

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.

Federal investigators were continuing to examine wreckage today, trying to determine why a 61-year-old Texas pilot's aircraft came apart during an air race the previous day.

Walther said the National Transportation Safety Board maintained custody of the area east of the airport where pieces of Gary Levitz's modified P-51 Mustang, Miss Ashley II, landed after it broke apart in the air in Saturdays final race.

"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.

It was the 14th fatality in the 36-year history of the air races and it has some residents ready to move the competition somewhere else.

"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."

Shirley and her husband Robert Downs 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."

Walther said the course was changed and pylons moved on the north end of the route this year in response to the 1998 crash.

"Safety is always, always our No. 1 concern, he said. "But were very limited within our course.

After one of the previous accidents, west of the aimes toward Red Rock Road, they now approach over less populated hills to the north.

Four P-51s flew a missing-man formati ground, fellow racer Tom Dwelle of Auburn, Calif., said simply, "We've lost another brother."

In the pit area where Levitz had parked his plane during race week, flowers had been placed and a note said, "Blue Skies forever, Gary."

Two Unlimited pilots, Michael Brown of Carson City and Bill Rheinschild of Sun Valley, Idaho, hugged each other then they walked into Levitz's pit and hung their heads. They were quickly joined by pilots Matt Jackson of Van Nuys, Calif., and Dwelle in an impromptu ceremony. Holding one another, they said a prayer for their departed friend, Dwelle said afterward.

At race headquarters Sunday morning, Reno Air Racing board member Bill Eck said, "We just found the tail."

An estimated 200 yards from the main wreckage in Lemmon Valley, the tail could be important in learning what caused Levitz's plane to come apart while he and others were rounding the first pylon at probably more than 400 mph.

Some of the thousands of people who witnessed the tragedy reported seeing part of the wing bring break off first. However, Jackson, who was flying right behind Levitz, said an elevator a horizontal piece on the tail that controls pitch broke off, violently throwing the plane out of control and causing the wings to break off.