| Pilot Jimmy Leeward, a 74-year-old real estate developer well known in air racing circles, was at the controls of "The Galloping Ghost" fighter plane when it slammed into a box seat area in front of the grandstand at the event at Reno on Friday. A photograph of the modified P-51 Mustang taken shortly before it slammed into an airfield at the 48th Annual National Air Championship Races appears to show a component of the plane's tail section falling off. Leeward and nine others were killed as a result of the accident, which is being investigated by the US National Transportation Safety Board. More than 50 other people were hospitalized for injuries. Officials said on Sunday that federal investigators probing the crash wreckage had recovered memory cards that could be from recording devices on the Mustang. They also said they had found no indication yet that the pilot of the plane sent a distress call before plunging nose-down into the tarmac. |
