It was a Friday afternoon in September, the kind of clear, crisp Nevada day that makes the High Desert look like a postcard. Thousands of people were packed into the grandstands at the Reno-Stead Airport, eyes glued to the "Valley of Speed." The Unlimited Class was the main event. These aren’t Cessnas. They are World War II fighters, stripped down, engine-boosted, and pushed to speeds that would make the original designers faint. Then, everything changed in about three seconds.
The Reno air races plane crash 2011 wasn’t just a mechanical failure. It was a moment that fundamentally shifted how we look at vintage aviation and public safety at sporting events. Jimmy Leeward, a 74-year-old veteran pilot with thousands of hours under his belt, was behind the controls of Galloping Ghost, a highly modified P-51D Mustang. He was pushing 500 mph when the plane suddenly pitched up, rolled, and plummeted directly into the box seat area in front of the grandstands.
Honestly, it’s a miracle the death toll wasn’t higher, though that’s cold comfort to the families of the 11 people who died.
The Galloping Ghost: A P-51 built for one thing
To understand why the Reno air races plane crash 2011 happened, you have to understand the plane. Galloping Ghost wasn't your standard Mustang. Leeward and his team had spent years shaving off every bit of drag. They shortened the wingspan by about four feet. They removed the cooling scoop from the belly and replaced it with a boil-off cooling system.
It was a beast.
Modified air racers are basically experimental craft. They operate on the absolute bleeding edge of physics. When you’re flying that fast, just a few feet off the ground, there is zero room for error. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) eventually spent a year picking through the wreckage. What they found was a mix of mechanical fatigue and some pretty questionable modifications that hadn't been fully flight-tested at race speeds.
The trim tab failure
The "smoking gun" was the left elevator trim tab. On a P-51, the trim tabs are small moveable surfaces on the back of the tail. They help the pilot maintain level flight without having to constantly muscle the stick.
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During the race, the screws and components holding that left trim tab together basically gave up. It suffered from flutter—think of a flag snapping violently in a high wind. The vibration was so intense it caused the linkage to fail. Once that tab broke, the aerodynamic forces snapped the plane’s nose up with such violence that Jimmy Leeward was hit with an estimated 17Gs.
For context, most human beings black out at 5 or 6Gs. At 17Gs, the blood is driven from your brain instantly. Leeward was unconscious before he even knew he had a problem. He became a passenger in a 400-plus mph kinetic missile.
The NTSB findings and the "hindsight" problem
The NTSB's final report (AAB-12/01) was pretty damning regarding the maintenance and documentation. They found that the locknuts on the trim tab were used way past their prime. They were "one-time use" parts that had been reused. When investigators looked at the photos taken by spectators seconds before the impact, they could see the tail section actually deforming.
Some people argue that the race shouldn't have been happening at all with spectators that close. Others say it was a freak accident. The truth is usually somewhere in the messy middle.
- Reused hardware: The NTSB noted that the self-locking nuts had lost their "locking" capability.
- Structural stiffness: The modifications to the airframe might have made it faster, but they also changed the vibration frequencies of the tail.
- The "G" factor: The seat in the Galloping Ghost wasn't designed for a 17G pitch-up. Leeward’s head likely hit the canopy or the structure, ensuring he couldn't recover.
It’s easy to point fingers after the fact. But in the world of Reno racing, "pushing the envelope" is the whole point. It’s a culture of garage-built ingenuity. Unfortunately, that day, the envelope pushed back.
How Reno changed after 2011
You’d think a crash that killed 11 people and injured over 60 would end the sport forever. It almost did. The insurance premiums alone nearly killed the National Championship Air Races. But the community rallied. They changed the rules. They moved the "dead line"—the boundary the planes fly along—further away from the fans.
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They also implemented much stricter pre-race inspections for the Unlimited Class. You can't just show up with a modified tail and hope for the best anymore. The FAA and the Reno Air Racing Association (RARA) stepped up the technical requirements for "Experimental" labeled aircraft.
It’s safer now, sure. But the shadow of the Reno air races plane crash 2011 still hangs over the Stead airport every September. You talk to the old-timers there, and they can tell you exactly where they were when they heard the sound of that impact. It’s a sound you don't forget.
The human cost
We talk a lot about the mechanics—the bolts, the trim tabs, the G-loads. But the human side is what actually matters. The victims weren't just "spectators." They were families, veterans, and aviation enthusiasts.
- Michael Wroughton Jr., 43.
- George Hewitt, 80, and Wendy Hewitt, 46.
- Sharon Stewart, 47.
- Greg Cohen, 48.
The list goes on. These were people sitting in the "VIP" section, the place you pay extra for to get the best view. They were doing exactly what you're supposed to do at a race: cheering.
The controversy of the "Ghost"
There is still some debate among pilots about whether Leeward could have done anything. Some people looked at the photos and saw him peering over the dashboard, suggesting he might have regained consciousness for a split second. But the NTSB's forensic evidence says otherwise. The force was simply too high.
Also, the plane had a camera system on board, but the memory card was damaged. We’ll never have the "cockpit view" of those final seconds. Maybe that’s for the best.
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The Reno air races plane crash 2011 prompted a massive discussion about whether "Unlimited" racing is even feasible in the 21st century. These are 80-year-old airframes. You can replace the engine, you can skin them in carbon fiber, but the "bones" are still from the 1940s. They weren't designed to go 500 mph at 50 feet above the ground for ten laps straight.
What we can learn from the tragedy
If you’re an aviation buff or just someone interested in how safety systems fail, there are a few takeaways here that aren't just "don't go to air races."
First, maintenance matters. Not just the big stuff like the engine, but the tiny stuff. A five-cent nut that has been loosened and tightened one too many times can bring down a multi-million dollar aircraft.
Second, testing is non-negotiable. The Galloping Ghost had undergone significant changes to its tail and trim system shortly before the 2011 season. There wasn't enough high-speed telemetry data to know how those changes would react under race conditions.
Third, the "safety area" is never big enough. Kinetic energy is a terrifying thing. A P-51 weighs about 7,000 pounds. At 400 mph, that’s a lot of energy to dissipate. When it hits the ground, it doesn't just stop; it disintegrates and spreads that energy across a wide field.
Moving forward
The Reno Air Races eventually moved away from Reno. After 2023, the event is looking for a new home. Part of that is urban sprawl—Reno is growing, and houses are getting closer to the airport. But a big part of it is the legacy of 2011. The liability is just too high.
If you're researching this for a project or just out of curiosity, here's what you should actually do to see the full picture:
- Read the NTSB report: Search for NTSB Accident Report AAB-12/01. It’s dense, but it shows the actual photos of the trim tab failing in mid-air.
- Watch the telemetry analysis: Several YouTube channels have reconstructed the flight path using the spectator footage. It’s chilling but educational.
- Check out the Reno Air Racing Association (RARA) updates: They have published extensive new safety protocols that are now industry standards for air shows worldwide.
- Verify the mods: Look up the history of the Galloping Ghost (NX79111). Its evolution from a stock P-51 to a racer is a masterclass in "hot rodding" aviation, for better or worse.
The Reno air races plane crash 2011 remains a somber reminder that in the quest for speed, the margin for survival is thinner than a piece of sheet metal. It changed the sport, it changed the rules, and it changed the lives of hundreds of people in a few heartbeats. We don't have to stop racing, but we do have to remember the cost of skipping the small details.