Death toll from Nevada air crash rises to nine

RENO, Nev.,  (Reuters) – The death toll in the crash  of a vintage World War Two fighter plane near the grandstand at  a Nevada air race has risen to nine, authorities said on  Saturday.  
 In addition to two people who died of their injuries at  hospitals, seven died on the tarmac following the crash on  Friday night, Reno Deputy Police Chief Dave Evans said. More  than 50 people were injured. Officials said previously the  crash killed at least three people.  
 The pilot, Jimmy Leeward, 74, was among those killed when  his P-51 Mustang dubbed the “Galloping Ghost” crashed into a  box seat area in front of the main grandstand, said Mike  Draper, spokesman for the 48th Annual National Championship Air  Races, also known as the Reno Air Races.  
 “It was like a war zone where the box seats were,” Draper  said.  
 In Martinsburg, West Virginia, another World War Two-era  plane crashed in a fireball at an air show on Saturday. There  was no official word on casualties.  
 After the Reno crash, a spokesman for Renown Regional  Medical Center said the hospital received 30 patients from the  crash and five others were taken to the affiliated Renown South  Meadows Medical Center.  
 Of those 35, six were listed in critical condition on  Saturday, two were in serious condition and five in fair  condition. One person was listed in good condition, and others  had been discharged.  
 Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board  and Federal Aviation Administration were on the scene of the  crash at an airfield north of Reno.  
 Proximity to the planes is a draw for the race, which  advises on its website, “Always remember to fly low, fly fast  and turn left.”  
 Draper said the planes sometimes fly at high speeds “about  50 feet (15 metres) off the ground and it’s an exciting,  exciting sight.”  
 The thrill has been a deadly one on occasion, with a total  of 28 people killed in the history of the race flown every year  in Reno since 1964, Draper said.  
 “The Reno Air Racing Association extends its most sincere  heartfelt condolences and sympathies to all of those affected  by yesterday’s tragic events,” the association said in a  statement.  
 Leeward was the son of a pilot and his own sons have also  flown planes. He worked as a stunt pilot on some movies,  including the 2002 release “Dragonfly.”  
 The Reno crash was the latest in a spate of fatal air show  accidents since August.  
 Last month, the pilot of an aerobatic airplane died in a  fiery crash in front of shocked onlookers at a weekend air show  in Kansas City, Missouri. In Michigan last month, a wingwalker  at an air show near Detroit plunged about 200 feet (60 metres)  to his death as he tried to climb onto a helicopter in midair.