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That's an interesting read. I guess I was under the impression that the Galloping Ghost had been modified the way it was the day of the crash and had been racing like that for years, I guess not.
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Bullshit.
Complete bullshit.
Why do the family members of a dead person feel entitled to $25MM?
True or false: The victims were there of their own accord?
True or false: The victims, while watching an unlimited class air race, knew of the inherrant risk of the activity and of being near it?
WTF happened to personal responsibility?
$25 million lawsuit filed in Reno air race crash
LAS VEGAS — The family of a Texas man killed when a racing aircraft crashed into spectators in the National Championship Air Races in Reno filed a $25 million lawsuit Tuesday against the pilot's family, a mechanic on the World War II-era aircraft and the Nevada organization that hosted the event.
The lawsuit filed in Collin County, Texas, is believed to be the first stemming from the Sept. 16 crash of pilot Jimmy Leeward's P-51D Mustang during air races at Reno-Stead Airport. Eleven people died, including Leeward, 74, of Ocala, Fla. At least 74 were hurt.
"Some people say this was an accident," said Houston-based attorney Tony Buzbee, who filed the civil liability lawsuit on behalf of Dr. Sezen Altug, a physician and widow of dead spectator Craig Salerno, and their two children, ages 6 and 8. "But it seems to me the formula that they created made an accident inevitable."
Leeward's son, Kent Leeward, declined comment on the lawsuit, which names Texas-based mechanic Richard Shanholtzer Jr., the Reno Air Racing Association, another Leeward son, Dirk Leeward, Leeward Racing Inc. and family corporations in Florida, and Aeroacoustics Inc., an aircraft parts maker in Washington state.
Reno Air Racing Association chief executive Michael Houghton said he hadn't seen the lawsuit but offered "condolences to the families and fans that were affected by this devastating tragedy."
"We fully expect a number of lawsuits to be filed," Houghton told The Associated Press. "This is the first."
Shanholtzer and an Aeroacoustics official did not immediately respond to messages.
Salerno, 50, of Friendswood, Texas, was a dispatcher for Continental Airlines and a lieutenant for a volunteer fire department who also volunteered at an annual Houston air show and was an avid racing pilot. He attended the Reno event with a friend who was hospitalized with critical injuries after the crash.
Speaking for Salerno's family, Buzbee said in a telephone interview that no amount of money could fix the "huge gaping hole ripped from their lives."
The attorney said he wanted to hold "two groups of wrongdoers" accountable: "Those who pushed the limits of physics on the plane, being risk takers and reckless without regard for the people who might be watching them, and those who promoted and profited from hosting the show."
Buzbee also raised questions about the independence of the National Transportation Safety Board investigation, pointing to evidence that the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority has lobbyists in Washington with ties to the NTSB. Neither the airport nor the federal investigative board was named in the lawsuit.
"A NTSB investigation should not be subject to the efforts of lobbyists," Buzbee said in an Oct. 25 letter to Howard Plagens, the chief NTSB investigator in the Reno crash. "Who will be the lobbyist for the victims?"
NTSB officials did not immediately respond Tuesday to messages seeking comment.
Records show the Reno airport authority paid $62,000 in 2011 to three Washington lobbying firms — Gephardt Group, Porter Group and Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson — to handle transportation funding issues before Congress. Gephardt Group is headed by former Democratic House majority leader and presidential candidate Dick Gephardt of Missouri. Former Nevada Republican Congressman Jon Porter heads the Porter Group.
Airport spokesman Brian Kulpin acknowledged that one of the airport's lobbyists hired Peter Goelz, a senior executive at the O'Neill and Associates in Washington and former NTSB official, as a consultant "to interpret the NTSB process."
"There is no lobbying taking place in regards to the air race crash issue at all," Kulpin said. "They're seeking guidance in the NTSB investigation process."
NTSB findings have not been made public and a ruling on the cause of the crash is pending.
Board officials said last month that while investigators found no readable onboard video amid the debris of the crashed aircraft, technicians were still trying to extract information from an onboard data memory card from Leeward's plane.
Leeward was a veteran movie stunt pilot and air racer who competed at the Reno air races since 1975. He said in interviews before the air races that that he hoped modifications to the aircraft he named "The Galloping Ghost" would help win the championship.
The fateful flight was captured on photos and video by hundreds of spectators, and a NTSB board member said investigators found a piece that apparently fell off the tail of as it went out of control.
Photos showed a tail part known as an elevator trim tab missing as the plane climbed sharply, then rolled and plunged nose-first at more than 400 mph into box seats on the tarmac in front of the center of the grandstands. Dead and injured people were scattered widely, but there was no fire.Comment
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Fuck them and the plane he crashed inComment
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yea, that is total bullshit.Comment
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Originally posted by Strychnine View Post
Honestly, IMO, the pilot was to blame since the plane hadn't been tested before the race. Where it goes from there, well.. Lives were lost.Comment
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motor racing kills people, that's why it's called a sport, not excercising... fucking pussies. Edit, on a side note this kinda like trying to blackmail batman. Do you really wanna go to court with people who play with $3,000,000 airplanes, they will eat your young in court............pinto gt with wood trimComment
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I agree with you. I'm not sure about the air races, but whenever I sign in to go auto racing, I see countless signs, and sign a waiver releasing the track from liability of something happening to me, and that I know racing is dangerous/lethal. There are even signs on most spectator entrances that say something similar.Originally posted by Strychnine View PostComment
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It was bound to happen. I hope the air race attorneys intervene and absolve the family of any liability. If they don't then every pilot is going to realize the liability they share racing (which already costs a fortune) and might kill the events all together."When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." -Benjamin Franklin
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury." -Alexander Fraser TytlerComment
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$25MM to the same people who say it's something "no amount of money could fix"?Originally posted by talisman View Post
No amount... but we'll start here and see what sticks!
Why is death always about money?
Don't punish the world for one's transgressions. If he had bailed out and let the plane sail into the crowd killing someone while he lived I might feel differently. But he's dead. He paid the ultimate price for his supposed misdeed and he also has a grieving network of family and friends who are just as torn up.
You want to do something? Take them to court and force new testing rules. Force more stringent pre-flight checks. Don't angrily grab at money like it will bring back a dead person under the guise of "teaching them a lesson."
There are no safety fences or jersey barriers in the sky. If you choose to stand under highly modified planes screaming over your head at 500mph and can't accept that bad shit could happen...Comment
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Why file in Collin County? Judge shoping??? Seems like it should be relocated to Reno instead being that the deaths were in that jurisdiction.Comment
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"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." -Benjamin Franklin
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury." -Alexander Fraser TytlerComment
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No big surprise there.Comment
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Interesting read, still a real sad event. A friend of mine knew the pilot well. They were both air racers, he's in a chair, and his friend was killed. Not a sport for bitches that’s for sure!Comment
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Very interesting report. Perhaps I missed it, but what were they attributing the wrinkles in the fuselage to?Comment
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