You may very well have heard about Steve Fossett by now. He's the millionaire whose plane is lost presumably somewhere in Nevada or California, but really who knows where? The search is still on, but sadly I'd imagine now it's a search for closure, rather than a search in the hopes of still finding him alive. It's been almost 2 weeks, and as much of a survivalist as he is, if he was able to be mobile, I would imagine he'd have figured out a way to have gotten himself found by now. I feel so sorry for his family.
What you may not have heard, if you don't live in this area, is that the Reno Air Races are being held this week and weekend .. and since they started on Tuesday, there have been fatal crashes EVERY day but Wednesday! Three people are confirmed dead so far, and we are waiting to hear about the final results of today's crash. I have never heard of this many fatalities in the air races here .. it is so very sad!
Sept. 11, 2007: Steve Dari, a former Navy fighter pilot, of Lemon Grove, Calif., biplane crashed on takeoff when his engine stalled during practice.
Sept. 13, 2007: Brad Morehouse of Aston, Wyo., dies in crash of L-39 jet during race.
Sept. 14, 2007: Gary Hubler of Caldwell, Idaho, dies in crash involving Jason Somes of Simi Valley, Calif. (whose condition is still unknown).
I feel so sorry for their families .. what a horrible thing. With the heavy mood of Fossett's tragic disappearance (there are search planes constantly flying around here the last 2 weeks), this has just been a horrible month for planes in this area. Between 1972 and 2002 there were 14 deaths at these air races. So that's roughly one death every other year. Now this year there are three! Scary.
Interestingly, with the search for Fossett, tons of other airplane crashes have been discovered in NV! That's what the graphic above is showing, and if you're interested in finding out more about the crashes, you can go to
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?NoCache=1&Dato=20070913&Kategori=SPECIAL04&Lopenr=70913016&Ref=AR&Show=0(sorry, you'll have to copy/paste) and click on the little plane icons .. it tells you when the crash occurred and some details about it.
Interesting stuff, but scary. I guarantee you _I_ am not getting in a little plane around here any time soon!
