Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20110917 : vimarsan

CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 September 17, 2011



i think he was trying to do whatever he could right up to the end. i could hear the engine of the plane changing rpms and it just happened so fast. i thought he was coming in on top of us. instead, he missed us by about 100 feet and went out into the box area in front of us. >> and there was no fireball as a result, right? >> no. i was sort of surprised p you know, we are all kind of like a deer in the headlights. i have been coming to the air races for over 20 years. as a matter of fact, we stay out here for the entire five days, camping, go to the air races, but there was no fire whatsoever. so the direction of impact, hard to say why there wasn't, but fortunately, there wasn't. >> did you get a sense of the number of people who have been injured? >> no it was pretty hard to tell, you know? after thinking back on it, it looked like, you know, he may have done as little damage as possible, the direction he came in. most of the debris went out onto the tarmac and taxi way in front of the boxes and a relatively small area of the boxes were actually affected. >> and tell me about these box seats. these are for -- there's the grandstand area what are the box seats? >> they are mostly businesses that bring in all their employees out. i think most of them are aviation-related businesses. they come from all over the country and they sit to out there. of then, they have little blowup swimming pools and things like that in this box area, but -- >> so, the prime seats? when -- you said you could tell that the pilot was in trouble. did you see the aircraft when it was flying normally or was your first look at it when it was already plunging straight down? >> no, i caught in -- he came over the deadline and -- >> what's the deadline? >> that's -- he they can't come any closer to the stands than the deadline and so, he came over that for some reason. whether he was forced out or he had a mechanical breakdown, something happened that forced him out over the deadline toward the grandstands. and then i heard his engine and looked up. as i say, he was within 100 feet, coming right down on top of us. so you know, pretty hard in a matter of seconds to say what you're feeling is where -- it just happened very quick. >> well, i'm so glad you were okay. did -- we understand -- i talked to one of the representatives from the race who said that they did receive a may day call from the pilot, mr. leeward. >> yes, it's very possible. he may have encountered this problem, called the may day. i think he was trying to salvage it. you know, these guys, i'm sure the last thing he thought was, oh, my gosh, i'm going into a crowd of people which, you know, it's very safety oriented out here. and this was just, you know, a bad -- bad luck situation is what it was. >> the pilot was a real estate developer out of ocala, florida. we believe killed in the crash. have -- you have been to a lot of -- to air races, a lot of air shows. have you ever seen anything like this? >> well, we have seen, you know -- i've seen three or four now, fatal air crashes, from racers, but this is the first one that's been this close. you know, it is an extreme motor sport goes back to the barnstorming days, inherent danger involved in all of it in the plane or in the stands. >> a memorial for the pilot held at 1 p.m. saturday, september 17th, the "galloping ghost" pit at the reap know stead airfield. i also just wanted to tell anybody who is concerned about loved ones who were attending this event, i saw on twitter saying their loved ones attended in event, haven't been able to reach them there is a number that family members can call, 775-972-6663. 775-972-6663. we will put that on the screen later on and air race staff, i'm told, trying to locate an establishment status of anybody involved and again, we anticipate this press conference at the national championship air races. listen, i really appreciate you talking to us and telling us what you saw, i'm so glad that you and your loved ones are okay. thanks very much for being with us. >> you're welcome. thank you. >> jim tillman is on the phone with us as well. jim, you have been seeing that video now, what do you make of it? >> after seeing it more clearly, it appears he just absolutely lost it. i mean, that airplane was a rock coming down. it was like -- wasn't falling like an airplane falls. it wasn't gliding, just came straight down. whatever happened, of course that airplane must have been absolutely catastrophic. >> and again, the pr representative for the field said that they did receive a may day call and he said that he believed the pilot was trying to pull up, trying to pull out of it but clearly from that video, at the point that the video that we see the plane on the video, there was no pulling out of that. >> no you know, it is possible literal get a plane into a con fig yaw racial where you literally cannot control it and something had to go wrong that made it just literally impossible for him to have any kind of positive control over the flight itself. i mean, you know, that flew out of it, understandable. i'm concerned about the pilot and whether something happened to him before this happened whether he had some sort of a medical condition before this happened. you have to look at medical and they have to look at the mechanics of the airplane. >> the pie lott lot was said to be about 80 years old. that -- there's all right already some people asking questions about whether you know, that might be too old. what are your thoughts on that? >> well, you know, i'm -- i'm a bad one to ask, because i don't believe that chronology has a whole lot to do with your capabilities. i think if he was able to pass his flight false and able to go out and fly a p-51 successfully, unless he had some medical emergency, i cannot imagine how that would have made the difference. 80 years old is not -- he is not a young guy, but by the same token, all i have been able to hear so far [ inaudible ] >> i have been reading -- be according to the faa, race organizers at an event like this really spend months preparing for it developing a comprehensive plan. the faa closely -- according to the the faa, they closely examine the race course, the proposed spectator area, they observe pilots' practice runs they conduct examinations of pilot and aircraft records to make sure they meet all qualifications, so it sounds like, jim, as if certainly the faa not only was on the scene, but had been looking after the safety of this thing for quite a while. >> they have to do that anderson, and they do a very thorough job of it. they do that kind of work every time you have aircraft or people on the ground, flying anything where near there are some very strict rules about air you're allowed to fly in what altitudes you are allowed to fly during these kinds of events. this was not a common situation. this is not something that's common to air races or common to air shows. things we are going to learn about this, separated from all those other things. >> jim, stand by going to take a short break, on the other side of that break we going to bring you that press conference live in a few minutes. let's take a break. to challenge ourselves on the most demanding track in the world. with us, in spirit, was every great car that we'd ever competed with. the bmw m5. and the mercedes-benz e63. for it was their amazing abilities that pushed us to refine, improve and, ultimately, develop the world's fastest production sedan. the cts-v, from cadillac. we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. she won't eat eggs without hot sauce. she has kind of funny looking toes. she's always touching my hair. and she does this dancing finger thing. 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>> yeah, i was -- i was arriving here this evening after crash, a couple of amateur pilots themselves from ontario who witnessed the crash, they said "galloping ghost" that p-51 was coming out of that last turn, looked like it either hit a stall or that something happened and that he lost control of the aircraft. pitched up. he said it was upside down, did a half-loop, waivered a few times, appear need tried to get control and then they said that he actually headed straight down into the ground, right in front of the grandstands, into those boxes where people are able to buy boxes for friends and family and they sit out in front of the grand stands, closer to the airfield, closer to the planes, they get a better shot, a better view of the planes during the air races. he said these two gentlemen from canada, the sound of the impact of the crash was just up believable. one person described it as absolutely sickening and that they thought the implications of this crash was pretty serious. governor sandoval is on his way now to be joined for a press conference that we are waiting for here at the airport. after the crash, these two witness as well said it that there was just debris flying everywhere. they were actually located in the pits section of the air races where the planes get their maintenance done, that people can buy ticket hes to walk around in the pits air to look at the planes to talk to the crews, take pictures and they were -- these two witnesses were stand when they saw the two planes coming around in the last heat for the day with these -- be what they call the unlimited, which is modified air -- airplanes that can race up to 500 miles an hour and more. the way that they described it the actual race that was going, another p-51 nicknamed "strayga" was far in the lead but ""galloping ghost"" the plane crashed was close and fighting for second place with another plane nicknamed "rare bear," so, "straga" was far in the lead but "gal long ghost" and "rare bear" were fighting for second when they came into the last turn and the crash happened. they were, like i stated, in the pits, they said they did not see the actual crash but they saw the last turn and the plane head into the ground just did not see the actual impact, but they did see debris flying everywhere, there were hundreds of people in the stands who sought whole thing but that there were no indications before that last turn that there were any problems with the plane. the crowd reaction, they said, that was they couldn't believe what they saw and that the first thing one of the witnesses said is we just saw a lot of people die. these two gentlemen who came here, amateur pilot, as i said. third will they are spectators, they come down from canada, enjoy it every year. afterwards, they were just wandering around the airfield sort of in disbelief. >> understandable. >> they didn't feel right, they felt numb, as they described it and so, now we are waiting for the rein know air racing association ceo and president and the governor to immediate mete and to have a press conference and let us know what the latest -- >> kelly, we are going to bring -- we are going to bring that you press conference to our viewers as soon as it occurs. kelly, stick with us. roland and karen schulman joining us on the phone from lake tahoe, at the air show, they saw the crash, appreciate you both being with us. what did you -- what did you see? >> yes anderson, thanks for having us on. my wife and i were watching the air races. we had been there all day. and we were on the from the row of the grandstand, the way the field was set up, you had multiple actions, a through f or g, and box seats in front of t we were in the grandstand, but on the front row, up against the seats. as we were watching, think it was the final heat of the day the plane was coming around, the announcer called out that one of the planes was pulling up so most of the people were watching the rest of the planes but i let my eyes go -- follow the plane as it was taking up and going over almost vertically, as it was pulling up over the grandstands. he was clearly trying to clear the grandstands. as we watched it it was one of those events you hear people describing accidents like this where everything seemed like it was in slow motion. the plane came to a stall. i realized he was not going to clear the grand are stands. i shouted to my wife, "he's not gonna make it. get down!" we both hit the ground on the front row of these grandstands that you're seeing and heard the impact. i looked over, i saw the debris flying off from the impact zone. heard the shrapnel zipping off the metal, aluminum grand stands and there was just a hushed silence and a bunch of "oh, my god," what's going on? as i heard the last of the debris field -- the debris fall from the impact field, we both stood up, looked over at the impact area and i could see where the box seats had been were decimated. it was pretty horrific. lots of sobbing echoed through the stands. my wife was really devastated by it in particular. i have a military background and i been in near-death experiences before so it didn't have the same impact on me, but i comforted her. we thought the best thing to do would be to get out of harm's way, get out of the way of first responded that were going nobody that area and so we left the grandstands at that point very much in shock. >> do you have any sense of numbers of people who were injured, just based on what you saw? >> you know it is hard to say. we were trying to tune in on the radio just to hear if it had been verified. i saw multiple people down in the area where the plane hit and these box seats f you have gone shows or events like this, they make these box seats out of these temporary metal or aluminum poles that just sort of separate one ten by ten or something area where they put some folding chairs and get closer to the the excitement, closer to the action, what have you. and these things line the front of the grandstand area. and where the plane hit, those poles were completely unapparent. i just couldn't see them. they had been completely blown away. and i saw a lot of blood did people, people standing in shock looking around. they came over the loud speaker and asked people to -- don't come down here, but don't leave, just stay where you are, don't get in the way. and turn your children away from it because, again, it was a pretty horrific sight with lots of blood and lots of very catastrophic injuries, as you might expect. >> karen, if i could just ask, how are you doing? are you doing okay? >> well, i'm still shaking. i'm still shaking. and i'm just very, very thankful for -- if the pilot had any power to take the plane back toward the middle area away from people, he certainly saved us and if he did have that power and i'm really pretty -- very, very shaken. >> as the plane was falling back to earth, he probably passed about 100 feet over us and just barely pulled away from the stands. it could have been a lot worse. i mean, it's tough to say that it could have been worse, 'cause it was terrible for the people that were there terrible people who were impacted by it but it could have been worse. he was faulk directly toward us and seemed to just barely glide past us when he hit the ground. had he not pulled out as much as he did, it would have been a whole lot worse. >> my goodness. well, roland and karen, i appreciate talking with you, and it's understandable, karen that you're shook up, both of you would be shook up, a lot of people shook up, even folks just watching this at home. so thank you for talking to us and i wish you well and i'm so glad you are safe. >> thank you, anderson. >> anticipating this press conference, thought it would be in the last couple of minutes, we are not sure what the delay is there is the the podium, we are going to bring it to you live. we are told they are waiting for the governor to show up, as soon as the governor does come, they are going to brief the governor, then going to have a press conference, we will bring that to you live. our coverage continues. we will be right back. i can my own homemade jam, apricot. and really love my bank's ise your ratcd. i'm sorry, did you say you'd love a pay raise asap uh, tuly, i said i love my bank's raise your rate cd. you spen8 days lo at sea ? 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[ announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ if you are just joining us, breaking news tonight, a plane crash at an air race in reno, nevada, reports of mass casualties after a p-51 plane crashed into a box area at an air race and air show. the pilot believed to be killed in that crash. joining me is the mayor of reno, bob cashell. mr. mayor what is the latest? do you have any sense of a number of casualties at this point? mr. mayor it is anderson cooper. can you hear me? >> yes, sir. can you hear me? >> yes, sir, i can. any -- do you have any sense of casualties o

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