1st Reno air race crash lawsuit filed
LAS VEGAS - November 1, 2011
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 did not immediately respond to messages. Attorney
Kenneth Shepperd in Seattle, representing Aeroacoustics, said he
had hot yet seen the lawsuit and couldn't immediately comment.
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 denied the board could be lobbied. Spokeswoman
Kelly Nantel emphasized the agency's role as an independent and
nonpartisan investigator "separate and distinct from regulatory
agencies, carriers, service providers, and industry groups."
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, is a former member of the Akerman firm and now heads his
own Porter Group.
Reno-Tahoe Airport director Krys Bart said the airport no longer
has a contract with Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson.
Airport spokesman Brian Kulpin said the Nevada law firm Jones
Vargas 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 an 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.