RENO, Nev. (AP) \u2014 The mid-air collision that killed two racing pilots in Reno last weekend is confounding aviation experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first- and second-place winning pilots, both Californians, crashed Sunday at the National Air Race Championships, possibly because of an aircraft blind spot, glare from the sun or even a brief moment of lost focus, experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But many are dumbfounded by the fact that such experienced pilots who\u2019d raced their T-6 warbirds at the same site so many times couldn\u2019t navigate trouble just seconds away from safely returning to the tarmac at Reno-Stead Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHonestly, it is very hard for me to find an explanation for how those two expert pilots ended up in the same piece of airspace at the same time,\u201d Reno Air Racing Association CEO Fred Telling said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Telling, who raced T-6s for 10 years, doubts there was a mechanical failure because someone would have radioed \u201cMayday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both pilots made brief radio transmissions just before colliding, so a health episode seems unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an abrupt end to what was to be the celebrated finale of Reno\u2019s run as the home of the national championships since 1964.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cObviously, a tragedy for all concerned and the fact it occurred after the last race of the last day of the last Reno air show is just beyond belief,\u201d said Scott Miller, an aviation professor at San Jose State University and civilian flight instructor for 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLike many pilots and spectators, when I first heard about it, I assumed the accident occurred during the race itself, not during landing sequence,\u201d he said. \u201cReally surprised and shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Telling described the victims, Chris Rushing of Thousand Oaks and Nick Macy of Tulelake, as skilled, expert pilots. Rushing was the defending champion in the race he won Sunday. Macy, the runner-up, had won six times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The National Transportation Safety Board, with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration, is leading an investigation into the crash and will release a preliminary report in another week or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investigators recovered wreckage this week from two debris fields about a half-mile (.8 kilometer) apart and transported it off-site, NTSB spokesperson Sarah Sulick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Event organizers were already looking for a new home for the competition after this year, partly because of rising insurance costs since 2011. That year a P-51D Mustang suffered a mechanical failure and crashed into the apron in front of the grandstand, killing the pilot and 10 spectators on the ground and seriously injuring another 70.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was one of the deadliest air show disasters in U.S. history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richard McSpadden, former commander of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, said the crash last week appears to have occurred in a transitional \u201ccool-down\u201d zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After racing at high speeds, a few feet from each other and 50 feet (15 meters) off the ground, it\u2019s a place where pilots circle more than 2,000 feet (609 meters) above. That\u2019s to allow their planes to slow and cool while their own adrenaline lowers before descending to about 1,000 feet (300 meters) on a looping, landing approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt seems like the accident happened somewhere between the transition between the cool-down area and then the overhead pattern into the landing,\u201d said McSpadden, senior vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association\u2019s Air Safety Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McSpadden shared his initial take in a YouTube video posted by his organization. He said the large wings on the planes used to train World War II pilots can restrict visibility for the pilot who is higher, who might be \u201cblind to the aircraft underneath them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs event organizers, anytime we\u2019re funneling airplanes into the same location … that\u2019s always a potential conflict,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McSpadden said the Reno Air Racing Association is known for its thorough planning and emphasis on safety. New pilots must attend a training school where they\u2019re tested on procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese two pilots would have known them extremely well,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the challenge for Reno is going to be to figure out, through all of these procedures and the lessons that they had: How did a gap occur to where they could have this kind of conflict?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Telling believes the planes already had left their cool-down zone and were at an elevation preparing for landing, but agreed that visibility could have been an issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you are in a turn, something immediately below you would be blanked out,\u201d he said. \u201cOr it could have been the glare of the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miller suspects the pilots thought they were farther apart than they really were. He\u2019s never flown at Reno but has been told that planes typically fly at similar speeds during their landing pattern, \u201cto make sure they keep that same relative separation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that happened in this case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McSpadden said veteran pilots know it\u2019s important not to let their guard down but it can happen when they are so close to landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe all know this, we\u2019ve heard it many times,\u201d he said, \u201cbut the flight\u2019s not over until the aircraft is shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first- and second-place winning pilots likely crashed at the National Air Race Championships, possibly because of a blind spot, glare or loss of focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":109143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,23,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3123],"class_list":["post-78013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"MZWTAJ3I4BDS3DAFRPBTCQY57U","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2023\/09\/23\/collision-that-killed-2-pilots-at-reno-air-show-confounds-experts\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n