Another lawsuit has been filed in the Sept. 16 Reno Air Race crash that killed 11 people, including the pilot, and insured nearly 70 other spectators, the Reno Gazette Journal is reporting .
The second suit was filed on Wednesday by a law firm on behalf of Gerry de Treville of Ukiah, Calif., a spectator who lost his eye when a vintage plane during the Reno National Championship Air Races. The suit claims the air racing organization was negligent and the aircraft was too dangerous to fly so close to spectators.
This accident was a disaster waiting to happen on many levels,” San Diego-based attorney David Casey Jr., who filed the suit in Washoe District Court, told the newspaper “The aircraft was highly experimental and should have never have been put in this type of event.”
Casey told the paper that art of the plane sliced through de Treville’s eye, part of his skull and took out his sinuses, leaving him with a missing eye, no sinuses and brain injuries.”
So far this is the second suit to be filed.
The family of Craig Salerno, 50, of Friendswood, Texas, a dispatcher for Continental Airlines and father of two, is suing race organizer Reno Air Racing Association, pilot James Leeward’s racing team and corporation and two enterprises that modified the plane to increase its speed.
According to witness accounts, the P-51 Mustang pitched oddly upward, twirled and took an immediate nosedive into a section of white VIP box seats. The plane, flown by 74-year-old veteran racer and Hollywood stunt pilot Leeward, disintegrated when it hit the ground.
The Mustang that disintegrated into the crowd had minor crashes almost exactly 40 years ago after its engine failed. According to two websites that track P-51s that are still flying, it made a belly landing away from the Reno airport. The NTSB report on the Sept. 18, 1970, incident says the engine failed during an air race and it crash landed short of the runway.
The National Championship Air Races draw thousands of people to Reno every September to watch various military and civilian planes race. Local schools often hold field trips there, and a local sports book took wagers on the outcomes.
The FAA and air race organizers spend months preparing for air races as they develop a plan involving pilot qualification, training and testing along with a layout for the course. The FAA inspects pilots’ practice runs and briefs pilots on the route maneuvers and emergency procedures.
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