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00:00200 feet above the Nevada desert
00:05A pilot tries to get his World War II fighter to go faster than it's ever gone before
00:12It was really a fast airplane
00:14We were fierce competitors at the same time, but dear, dear friends
00:23Mid-race
00:25The plane suddenly veers off course
00:29It was literally like a bomb went off
00:3411 people are killed
00:37Including the pilot
00:39There was no way he could have survived something like that
00:43The airplane hit the ground at over 500 miles an hour
00:46Trying to ID these pieces seems almost impossible
00:50Investigators call on the pilot's close friend
00:53No one knows more about this stuff than you
00:54To help them figure out how a long-running air race turned deadly
00:58No one knows what I've been doing
01:00No one knows what you're doing
01:02No one knows what I've been doing
01:04Reno Nevada desert town and the state's original gaming capital today Reno is
01:32hosting a very different kind of high-stakes game a gamble in the sky known as the National
01:40Championship air races every year since 1964 pilots have been coming to this desert airfield
01:53for a week of fierce competition the Reno air races are all about one thing and only one thing
02:01and that's all-out speed it is unlike any other venue in the world about 100,000 spectators
02:14converge on this five-day event to watch everything from biplanes to jets compete around an eight-mile
02:21oval through the desert the highlight of the event is the unlimited class unlimited because
02:29anything goes both modified and stock World War two fighters many of the airplanes have been highly
02:38modified just to make them go faster they are the ones that the fans really love this year the bars
02:48is all about Hoot Gibson's good friend pilot Jimmy Lee would he's competing in the unlimited class with
02:55his modified warplane the galloping ghost and he's hoping to fly it faster than it's ever gone before
03:01Jimmy was determined to win the unlimited championship Jimmy told me he had had the airplane over 500 miles
03:11miles an hour it was really a fast airplane the Morecambe family have some of the best seats in the house a VIP box in front of the main grandstand
03:26my father and I started going to the Reno air races about 1990 it's not like any other event and it's amazing to experience
03:39Ron Morecambe is with his wife Tracy his brother Greg and their dad
03:46I got some earplugs for you if you want them Greg
03:49I won't do any good the noise is half the fun
03:53while Ron's been coming to Reno for years this is his brother's first time
04:01the single-engine planes race low to the ground around an eight-mile oval
04:15the course is marked by 10 pylons 50-foot-tall poles planted in the desert the finish line is right in front of the grandstand
04:25at 74 race pilot Jimmy Lee wood is a legend in Reno he's raced here for 30 years
04:48Hoot Gibson isn't just Jimmy's good friend that's it he's a former astronaut and a long-time competitor of Jimmy's
04:56but Hoot is done racing for this year
05:00I qualified fourth overall in the unlimited competition but in my qualifying run I burned
05:10a hole in a piston so I was out of the races for 2011 so I didn't get to race against Jimmy
05:18you know Hoot I'm uh sorry you're not going to be in this race today you know why
05:25no Jimmy tell me why
05:27that was gonna smoke your ass
05:30oh well next time
05:37we were fierce competitors but dear dear friends
05:43and I really valued Jimmy's friendship today Jimmy's flying a highly modified p-51 Mustang fighter
05:53the p-51 Mustang is a world war 2 legend fast agile and sturdy
06:04the p-51 Mustang is such an iconic airplane it was one of the first fighters built right at the very
06:15beginning of world war 2 since Jimmy's plane was originally built it's been heavily modified to reduce
06:24drag and increase speed good luck Jimmy see you hood we're gonna break a record today
06:34wish I could be up there with you if Jimmy can get the galloping ghost to break 500 miles an hour
06:40his prediction will come true but pushing the envelope that far comes with a risk a risk all pilots must accept
06:49we're in a very unforgiving environment going that fast that close to the ground was not unusual to have pilots die at Reno
07:02at 4.05 the last qualifying heat for the unlimited class is set to go
07:11the race
07:13Jimmy Lee would is the oldest pilot in the race
07:18making the final won't be easy
07:21hey ghost here we're looking good
07:23Roger Jimmy
07:24standing by
07:26the competition in the unlimited class is second to none
07:32the pilots that are flying these airplanes are the best of the best
07:36the best racer number seven you are next for the runway radio check towers on channel one over
07:46in the tower reno police lieutenant amy newman has a bird's eye view of the airfield
07:54newman is the ranking law officer on site one of the reasons why we want to have somebody
08:01of rank in there is that if there is an incident then you want to have somebody that has the
08:05authority and the decision-making ability to coordinate and command you try to plan for the
08:12worst-case scenario the galloping ghost accelerates for takeoff right now Jimmy Lee would has just one
08:24goal in 2011 Jimmy was out to win all stations on standby as the pilots get their planes into
08:37the air and prepare for the race Newman listens for a mayday she hopes will never come race spotters
08:45closely monitor the status of each plane they're all connected earphone wise to all the cockpits and
08:54so that they can listen to any change any nuances any statements that would cause any level of distress
09:01or a mayday now with all six planes in the air they line up beside a pace plane the racers follow that
09:11plane towards the start line and if everyone's lined up correctly nobody is pulling ahead yet he's gonna
09:18say gentlemen you look good gentlemen you have a race Lee would hits the throttle starting on the outside of the pack he'll need
09:29nerves of steel to catch and pass other planes we're flying in a hundred feet above the ground and you're
09:36accelerating and at the same time you've got to be avoiding the other airplanes you've got to be not hitting the ground
09:43obviously you've got to be not hitting the pylons so it's busy it's real busy the planes jockey for position at
09:51close to 450 miles per hour it takes one minute to complete a lap of the eight-mile course by lap two
10:02Jimmy's in fourth place and closing fast on planes ahead Jimmy did just just like I thought he was gonna do
10:11smoke him he held back a little bit and then at about the end of the second lap or or somewhere in
10:21that time frame I could see he started to make his move on the ground Jimmy's team closely track the
10:31galloping ghost on their flight data monitoring system speed engine performance oil pressure and more
10:38everything is working perfectly looking good jimmy pressure stable rpm solid the more comes watch as the
10:48galloping ghost passes pylon six near the end of lap three looks like the ghost is gaining on him jimmy
10:55lee woods now in third place and chasing voodoo another p51 we do get that reverberation on the tower
11:04can feel it you certainly hear it they're coming in pretty hot as the galloping ghost rounds pylon eight
11:16it suddenly pitches up hard what's happening all of a sudden I hear the spotters gasp jimmy leeward has
11:26lost control of his aircraft oh no jimmy the airplane had deviated some 80 or 90 degrees from the direction
11:36it had been flying this was not a normal mayday pull-up when it reached the top of the arc and started
11:44coming down you could see this airplane was out of control everybody realized that there's there's a big
11:51problem here a p51 mustang spirals out of control at the reno air races and dives towards thousands of
12:06spectators the airplane's coming straight at me the last thing I saw was the sunlight shining off the
12:14chrome spinner and all I could do was to get down as low as I can the galloping ghost slams into the
12:31ground just 20 feet behind the Morecambe family it was literally like a bomb went off all available
12:45emergency personnel to the apron next thing I see is this black mass right in front of the bleachers
12:56in just nine seconds this race has turned into a nightmare it's the worst disaster in the history of
13:07the reno air races the worst year that we had had previously was 2007 where three pilots died but never
13:18before had we injured a spectator luckily there is no fire but the heavy impact has showered spectators
13:28with oil and deadly debris I stayed up in the tower to manage the incident command scene it was really
13:37difficult to stay up there in the natural response of the first responders to want to go down there and
13:42provide your own two hands to the situation Ron Morecambe isn't hurt it was just a second later and I realized I
13:59didn't get hit and I saw my wife she was bleeding from the head she had stuff all over her oil and gasoline
14:09so I grabbed her and got her out of the debris field and so I turned around and went back to my
14:20father who himself was in shock it's gonna be okay dad I said it's gonna be okay and he says no it's not
14:28gonna be okay and he pointed over and he says that's Greg laying over there that's Greg over there and I
14:35looked over back at the booth and I saw my brother laying down face down on the ground
14:39with the help of a paramedic Ron tries to save his brother he has a serious head wound and a faint pulse
14:51but there's nothing they can do Greg's injury is fatal I knelt down I told him I loved him
15:04and then I asked God to take care of him
15:08Ron Morecambe's wife and father are soon transported to hospital along with 62 other injured spectators
15:18the crash kills 11 people including galloping ghost pilot Jimmy Leawood I knew right away Jimmy was gone
15:31I knew there was no way that he could have survived something like that he had been such a dear dear
15:42friend I just cried I'm clint kurchakes tower plugins with the NTSB we've been authorized to take over this
16:02investigation investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are already on site
16:10promoting air safety awareness they've witnessed the crash watching the accident happen was quite
16:17unique we saw the airplane pitch up roll over hit the crowd and the three of us working were stunned
16:23portions of the airplane ended up about a hundred yards from where we were sitting it can sometimes
16:33take days to start an investigation but Howard Plagans and Clint Crookshanks are at work in just minutes
16:41nothing can be touched until we get photographs nothing moves okay we could see the initial impact point and
16:52then the debris fanning out across the ramp there was chairs there was aircraft debris there was liquor from
17:01all of the coolers that were in the boxes it was just chaos there was just debris everywhere now as
17:10they launch an investigation into one of the worst air race crashes in history the NTSB needs to figure out
17:17what caused the galloping ghost to tumble fatally from the sky in just nine seconds
17:22in Reno Nevada NTSB investigators study the remains of the galloping ghost p-51 Mustang the airplane hit the
17:41ground at over 500 miles an hour and so there was not much left the largest piece may be measured three
17:48feet square but most of the airplane especially the forward part of the airplane was little tiny bits
17:54and even the Merlin v12 engine was totally broken apart into individual cylinders explaining what
18:04happened from the shattered debris alone could be impossible the remaining air races are cancelled
18:12investigators start collecting evidence all right listen up everybody we need every piece no matter how small so
18:25take your time okay and everything you find goes into one of these bags okay so let's get going thank you very much
18:35a few hours after the accident that killed 11 people race volunteers and emergency workers are collecting
18:43debris to be stockpiled in an airport hangar thank you it's a painstaking job
18:49my first step is to make sure the scene is contained and safe and then let's have them start a grid from
19:00the impact point back to pylon 8 where we know the upset began and then start looking for any perishable
19:07information that we need to gather immediately thank you investigators want photographic evidence as well
19:13stills and video of the crash taken by the thousands of fans on site we asked anybody that had something to
19:24contribute go ahead and send it in the request turns up some jaw-dropping evidence we were able to
19:32get the airplane throughout the entire race the start to the finish and that proved invaluable in the
19:38investigation okay and then we got four five six a searcher finds an airplane part outside the search grid
19:46where did you find this
19:48out there can you show me on the map
19:53it was a light piece and it was far away further than some of the other heavier pieces
20:02crookshanks and playgrounds wonder how a light piece landed between pylon 9 and pylon 1 how'd it get
20:11all the way over there over 1500 feet away from the crash site we would not have expected to find it
20:18where we did this great expect the heavy pieces to go the greatest distance from the accident site good job
20:24and also all the main wreckage was very dirty had a slimy greasy feel to it this piece was pristine
20:34was clean this is great well done thank you investigators wonder about the significance of this piece
20:42in a hangar near Sacramento California investigators go through bag after bag of collected debris that
20:57bears no resemblance to an aircraft hard to believe that this morning this was a plane answers about what
21:06happened will be hard to come by but the news media is already speculating about a cause a report
21:17featuring a photo of the ghost just before it crashed shows the left tail trim tab coming off
21:23that's the same piece found over 1500 feet from the crash site the news reports were reporting that you
21:32know they had solved the case with the the missing left trim tab left elevator trim tab that had come
21:38off and at that point I said well I think we found that piece trim tabs are key to controlling an airplane
21:48while tail elevators direct an aircraft to climb or descend trim tabs on their trailing edge keep the
21:55elevator in place without the need for constant adjustment if the trim tabs fail the aircraft
22:02could lose control why did the tab break off and cause jimmy leeward to lose control or did the tab
22:12break off because the plane went so badly out of control so far the investigators have no idea
22:25we know that we have a process that is going to drill down the facts and figure out exactly what happened
22:32with so many unanswered questions it's unclear how long it will take for investigators to solve this mystery
22:39in the meantime the future of one of aviation's most iconic racing events hangs in the balance
22:47i'd have to say one of the real big questions after this horrible accident was is this going to be the
22:55the very end of the reno air races
23:03oh hey it's good to have you on board you bet i'm glad to have you
23:09former astronaut hoot gibson helped nasa investigate the columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003
23:16no one knows more about this stuff than you so really appreciate it now reno race officials have
23:23asked him to help the ntsb he said you really need to be part of this and i said okay i'd be willing to do
23:32that investigators want to rule out as many potential factors as they can
23:39they start with the pilot jimmy leeward at age 74 he was already too old to fly a commercial airliner
23:50who you knew jimmy real well did he have any medical concerns
23:57none that i was aware of he was in great shape
24:01look at this he had a history of high blood pressure that's news to me
24:12did jimmy leeward have a heart attack mid-flight and lose control of his airplane
24:19so our medical officer went and talked to jimmy's personal doctor as well as his faa doctor
24:25and we always perform an autopsy on the uh the pilot of an accident investigators send jimmy leeward's
24:34remains for an autopsy the report provides conclusive evidence that a sudden heart attack did not cause
24:41leeward to lose control no drugs no alcohol in the system no sign of heart disease he was fit to fly
24:53jimmy leeward was in perfect health jimmy was 74 years old and his age had nothing to do with this
25:08oh thanks thanks nice to meet you having ruled out the pilot's health investigators
25:16turned to leeward's crew to learn more about the state of his plane
25:19he had a licensed aircraft mechanic as his crew chief and he also had a an engine builder on his
25:27crew those were the two people that we focused on in discussing anything wrong with the airplane
25:33so this is the actual data from the aircraft just before it crashed
25:38the most important thing that we discovered from the crew is that they had a telemetry system
25:42on board the airplane that was downloading data
25:45instead of a conventional black box that stores flight data on board reno race planes use a telemetry
25:54system a device on board the aircraft collects data on the plane's performance
26:00that data is wirelessly transmitted to the ground crew in real time the galloping ghost recorded a bunch
26:08of engine parameters but also recorded position on the race course altitude on the race course and speed
26:15it was a welcome surprise that they had it because it gave us even more information about what was
26:20going on so you were tracking performance all week all right lap time seemed consistent
26:28investigators learned that as far as the crew is concerned friday's race started like any other
26:34and that prior to the crash the plane was performing well looking good jimmy pressure stable rpm solid
26:46okay i'll need a copy of this even though on the surface the data reveals no issues with the
26:52mechanical functions during the mechanical functions during the flight investigators want to dig deeper
27:03speed and rpm look good crookshanks looks for clues that jimmy's crew might have missed
27:11but he comes up empty oil pressure seems fine none of the data parameters help explain what could have
27:19caused a trim tab to detach from the plane
27:24but one parameter does stand out wow look at the g level
27:31g level refers to the gravitational force that we experience here on the earth
27:37all of us sitting on the ground here are seeing one g smoke him jimmy go go in the races we'd be pulling
27:46six g's but jimmy saw more than that went right off the scale more than nine g's
27:53and the onset rate it spiked in under a second the gravitational load on the pilot when he goes into
28:03the steep climb is astounding christ jimmy it doesn't explain why the plane veered off course
28:12but it may explain why jimmy leeward never regained control through video evidence we were able to
28:19determine that that g spike was actually in the neighborhood of 17 g's 17 g's is more than five
28:27times what astronauts experience on liftoff it's a knockout blow i would have been unconscious
28:35someone 30 years old would have been unconscious top gun would have been unconscious at the g level
28:41that that airplane experienced oh no it's now clear jimmy if leeward wasn't incapacitated before
28:50the sudden upset he most certainly was just seconds later what's happening jesus no no it's very likely
28:59that the g forces incapacitated the pilot within a couple of seconds so that the airplane was then
29:05uncontrolled as it hit the ground there was no way he could have steered clear of the crowd
29:17but the spike in g-forces raises more questions did the left trim tab fall off pitching the aircraft
29:25violently upward or did the violent g-forces of the climb start tearing the plane apart in mid-air
29:31the demise of the galloping ghost remains a mystery that's a fuselage oh i don't know howard trying to
29:46id these pieces seems almost impossible you're right it looks like a scrap heap yeah one week after a
29:54modified p51 mustang crashes at the reno air races ntsb investigators still don't understand what caused the
30:02disaster the airplane was absolutely fragmented so there weren't any big chunks to look at
30:13so far the investigators biggest clue is an eight inch piece of trim tab that separated from the aircraft's
30:19tail section but they have no idea how or why it broke off you know this plane flew in world war ii
30:30was almost 70 years old and it was highly modified for speed maybe it was too modified investigators wonder
30:40if years of modifications to the galloping ghost turned a sturdy fighter into an unstable racing machine
30:47they need to learn all they can about how it was altered we had to learn quite a bit about the p51
30:55and all the information we had was on the stock airplane it turned out that this airplane was so
31:00highly modified that it wasn't even close to being a stock airplane all of these world war ii fighters
31:09are going to have to be modified to make them fast enough
31:13and of course he had such extensive modifications to the airplane
31:20hoot gibson tells investigators he thinks the ghost was the most modified p51 to ever race in the unlimited
31:28class it had the most radically clipped wings of any p51 mustang ever
31:35gibson helps the ntsb investigators compare the p51's original blueprints to the rebuilt galloping ghost
31:47in the war the p51 needed all this wing for long range missions but a race is only 50 miles
31:55jimmy needed speed not range the original p51 was designed to fly long range carry extra fuel tanks
32:10underneath the wings and fly at i think something like 12 000 pounds gross weight but we don't need
32:16that for air racing so we don't need that much wing they discovered that in the 60s the galloping ghost
32:24had its wings shortened by eight feet and its tail by one foot a change that made the plane lighter and
32:31more streamlined the less wing that you're dragging through the air at high speed the less drag you're
32:36going to have therefore the faster you're going to go in 1983 jimmy leeward bought the plane painted it
32:44yellow in 1985 and raced it on and off for years at reno in 2007 he began making his own modifications
32:54to the galloping ghost i see he overhauled his engine took his top speed from 300 to 500 miles an
33:05hour maybe more wow but there's one big problem you find anything on the flight tests nothing zip
33:15there are no records of leeward ever flight testing the modifications investigators can't be sure if
33:23the changes he made were safe it was incredibly frustrating that there was no information
33:30the fact that there was no testing of any of the modifications was alarming to us
33:34what went wrong in the skies over nevada is still unclear until investigators discover a new league
33:46there right there you see it i do happens all the time video evidence shows the plane rolling
33:54suddenly further left before pitching upwards investigators wonder if leeward flew into wake turbulence that battered his plane
34:02wake turbulence is an atmospheric disturbance that forms behind an aircraft in flight vortices spiraling
34:12off the wingtips can create dangerous tornado-like winds it is so frequent and so common that you're
34:20going to hit the wake of an airplane out in front of you as you're going around the racecourse and it
34:25always seems to roll you steeper roll you beyond 90 degrees of bank angle turbulence could explain
34:32the left roll the left roll upset was consistent with a wake encounter did the wake cause the left trim tab
34:42event that's another question investigators wonder if leeward got too close to the plane flying just ahead of
34:52the galloping ghost a plane called voodoo but they discover that the telemetry data from voodoo is faulty
35:00investigators can't be sure of its exact position throughout the race they will never know if wake
35:09turbulence from voodoo caused the increased left roll i can't believe it we could not show that the
35:17galloping ghost had hit that weight it's another disappointment
35:27look at the safety board
35:32notes from a pre-race safety inspection of the galloping ghost provide investigators with a new lead
35:38a problem with the trim tab fastening screws we drilled down into exactly what that meant and talked
35:47to the inspector and the crew we were able to determine that the right elevator trim tab screws
35:55were installed incorrectly and that problem was rectified before the airplane was ever out on the
36:01race course so they say they replaced the screws on the right tab but they never touched the left one
36:09when investigators re-interviewed jimmy leeward's crew they learned that the mechanics refitted the
36:16screws on the right trim tab as ordered but there's no record of any pre-race repair to the left trim tab
36:23the one that tore off they told us they had to re-tighten the trim tab screws on several occasions
36:32so the airplane was talking to the crew they never investigated the reason for the screws coming loose
36:38the question now did the left trim tab have a defect that no one spotted crookshanks still
36:48can't answer that question can you uh find me those photos of the tab separating yeah the piece that broke
36:56away is only part of the trim tab the hinge that fastened the tab to the plane's tail has never been
37:02found without that hinge they may never know the full story behind the crash of the galloping ghost
37:12three months after the accident investigators still don't know why a modified p-51 air racer
37:19went out of control and crashed killing 11 people so where do you want to start
37:25uh anything that looks like a tailpiece but now that they better understand the aircraft investigators
37:34search the debris with renewed purpose wreckage be it large pieces or small pieces is always going to
37:42tell a story so you have to methodically go through it and look for those signatures
37:47in december of 2011 investigators finally get a break they identify a mangled piece of metal in the
37:57debris it looks like a piece of the trim tab assembly howard take a look at this wow it's the critical
38:06piece they've been searching for the hinge from the left tail trim tab the part that the tab broke away from
38:14the discovery became very important as the investigation progressed half the screw is snapped off and what's
38:23left is loose examining the trim tab assembly they discover that a screw that once fastened the tab to
38:31the hinge is loose something that should never happen it turns real easy the screw is supposed to be secured
38:40tightly by a lock nut fixed to the underside of the hinge assembly the lock nut is specially designed to grip
38:47the threads of the screw so it can't come loose due to vibration
38:55why didn't the lock nut hold the screw in place investigators send the trim tab assembly to an ntsb lab in
39:03washington dc paint analysis of the lock nut leads to an eye-opening discovery the lock nuts on this
39:12particular airplane had some yellow paint on them the airplane was last painted yellow in 1985
39:21it means the critical part is at least 26 years old when you go to the faa guidance it states that you
39:28should not reuse lock nuts like this the deteriorated nut should have been replaced years ago
39:39that's not all they find microscopic analysis of the screw reveals fatigue cracks evidence that
39:46years of vibrating inside the loose lock nut weakened the screw to the point of failure
39:51when investigators get the lab results so vibration finally broke the screw they believe they've found
40:05their smoking gun we knew that it had been loose in order for it to cause the necessary forces to fatigue
40:14the screw over time aging parts a loosely fastened trim tab and extreme aerodynamic forces it's a fatal combination
40:27we spent a lot of time to get this one right 11 months after the crash of the galloping ghost at
40:34the reno air races let's go ghost the ntsb announces the probable cause of the accident
40:42we drilled down into every possible area we could to figure out what happened with this airplane
40:50traveling at 512 miles per hour 200 feet above the nevada desert a loose 26 year old lock nut causes
40:58a metal fatigued screw in the p-51's left trim tab to snap sending the plane into a violent upward pitch
41:06extreme g-forces instantly incapacitate pilot jimmy leeward oh no preventing him from taking any evasive
41:16actions jimmy what's going on the whole accident sequence happened very rapidly i'm sure jimmy never saw
41:26himself hit the ground jesus in its final report the ntsb finds that fast and loose interpretation of
41:41the race rules also played a role in the crash it did not make sense to do all these major modifications
41:51and not do flight testing on it the time to do that is when you're out over the desert by yourself
41:56not when you're around a crowd of a hundred thousand people as for the crash survivors ron and tracy
42:03morcom they've never returned to the reno air races and ron still has nightmares it was a light that was
42:12coming out of a dark sky and if i didn't get out of the way this light was going to kill me
42:22he's coming right at us that lights the light off the spinner of the airplane
42:37for clint crookshanks this investigation was unique this investigation was fascinating from start to
42:44finish we got to look into this old warbird and really see how robust the design was
42:51we also got to see how folks were pushing these airplanes folks that were doing it correctly and
42:57doing the correct modifications and testing this unfortunately was not one of those cases
43:04as a result of their investigation the ntsb issues safety recommendations requiring engineering
43:10evaluations for aircraft with major modifications and improving safety for spectators and personnel
43:18near the race course we have a much safer reno air races because of the recommendations that we made
43:25as a result of this accident and for the unlimited pilots life in the fast lane goes on hoot gibson won
43:35the 2015 unlimited championship in another modified p51 air racing is really exciting people come from
43:46literally the entire world i'd say the future of the reno air races looks promising
43:56so
43:59i'm
44:00not
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