Reno air crash beyond scope of FAA safety precautions

By FRANK X. MULLEN JR.

Reno Gazette-Journal

RENO, Nev. -- Federal Aviation Administration documents show the agency had requirements to keep spectators safe at the National Championship Air Races, including maps of projected "debris fields" in case aircraft broke apart while aiming at the crowd during turns.

But the Sept. 16 crash that claimed 11 lives and injured dozens more spectators, didn't fit any of those expected scenarios. Instead, experts said, the worst possible thing went wrong at the worst possible place on the course -- a point closest to the spectators.

"The FAA's safety regulations appear to be based on the assumption that when something goes wrong the aircraft will continue to go in the direction it's expected to go," said Mike Danko, an aviation lawyer and pilot in San Mateo, Calif.

"That's a faulty premise. When an aircraft goes out of control it can go in a direction that's not anticipated. Was the FAA protocol appropriate? It looks like it was not."

He said such safety rules can lull fans into a false sense of security.

Peter R. Leffe, an aviation accident investigator and accident reconstruction expert in Malibu, Calif., said Reno race organizers anticipated mid-air collisions and debris flying off aircraft, but "total loss of control of an aircraft" was far down on the list.

"Is it foreseeable? Yes," said Leffe. "But the probability of that happening are extremely low. It hadn't happened in nearly 50 years, and it may not happen again."

Race officials have said for decades that they were minimizing risks to spectators by following FAA regulations for air races and air shows. Because the crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, race organizers won't talk about safety, even the precautions they observed for 47 years before the disaster.

"The air races have always conducted the event in compliance with all of the authorizations issued by the Federal Aviation Administration," said Mike Draper of R&R Partners, public relations representative for the races, who said the FAA must sign off on a waiver before the races are held each year.

"Before granting the event waiver, the FAA looks at things like spectator safety, the aerobatics box (the area where aerobatic performances take place), and race course specifications," Draper said. "Unequivocally, the National Championship Air Races has always been granted a waiver."

Federal officials said the distances between the fans' seats and the race course at Reno Stead Airport exceeded the FAA minimum distances required.

According to FAA rules in the air race waiver application, measures taken to ensure the safety of race spectators included:

-- A 500-foot safety zone between the spectator area and the outer "show line," the outside border of the oval-shaped race course.

-- FAA requirements for the 500-foot safety zone require the distance be measured from the "primary spectator area" to the race course. It isn't clear whether the measurements to the outer edge of the race course (the "show line") were made from the bleachers or the edge of the box seats, which are temporary folding chairs set up in front of the bleachers. In either case, it appears the distances exceeded the minimum allowed.

-- The requirements also mandate that organizers plot the possible paths of debris that might fall off an aircraft during the tight left turns on the oval course.

Before last month's disaster, 18 pilots and participants had been killed during the races, including three in 2007. Another pilot died while practicing prior to the start of the event in 2008, bringing previous race-related fatalities to 19.

Until last month, no spectator had ever been injured at the Reno races, and scattered debris had never been a problem. But when the blast of debris came Sept. 16, it flew right at the spectators from a point directly in front of the box seats.

Danko said that with fans so close to the action, it was "just a matter of time" before spectators were killed. The racing planes are experimental, he said, and are modified beyond their design limits to make them faster and faster.

Assuming that planes traveling in excess of 450 mph in a direction parallel to the fans would continue to travel in that direction if something went wrong is a flawed theory, he said.

"When things go wrong, planes or cars or pieces of them often go in a direction that was never intended," he said.

Leffe said the only way to keep spectators safe with aircraft speeding close by would be to put the fans in a bunker, a precaution that would negate the thrill of attending air races.

"You can try to cover every possibility, but there's no way you can," he said. "I think most spectators know that being near big, heavy airplanes going really fast is a lot riskier situation than sitting in their living rooms."