NTSB probes plane's tail in Reno air race crash (Reuters)

RENO, Nevada (Reuters) – Federal investigators trying to determine why a World War II-era fighter crashed at a Nevada air race, killing nine people, said on Saturday they would focus in part on the plane's tail assembly.

A photograph of the modified P-51 Mustang in the seconds before it slammed into an airfield at the 48th Annual National Air Championship Races on Friday afternoon appears to show a component of the plane's tail section falling off.

"We have seen the photos and the video and clearly that is one aspect of this that will be investigated intensely," National Transportation Safety Board member Mark Rosenkind said at a press briefing.

"Clearly that is a focused area for us to look at," Rosenkind said, adding that parts of the tail section had been recovered from the crash site, which left a 3-foot deep crater on the tarmac of Reno Stead Airport.

Seven people were killed at the site when pilot Jimmy Leeward slammed the sleek silver fighter plane, which was dubbed "The Galloping Ghost" in the 1940s, into a box seat area in front of the grandstand.

Leeward, a 74-year-old real estate developer who was well known in air racing circles and had worked as a stunt pilot in movies, was among the dead.

A total of 54 other people were transported to area hospitals, where two died of their injuries, Evans said.

Astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, had been scheduled to fly in a P-51 Mustang in the Reno air show on Saturday, a Giffords spokesman said.

Kelly was in Reno the day of the deadly accident, but Giffords spokesman Mark Kindle said he was going back to Houston after the plane crash resulted in the cancellation of the races, originally scheduled to run through the weekend.

Giffords was shot in the head during a meeting with constituents in Tucson, Arizona in January in an attack by a gunman that killed six people.

The NTSB investigation in Nevada began on the same day that a vintage plane crashed in a fireball at a Martinsburg, West Virginia air show, killing the pilot.

NTSB TO PROBE RACE SAFETY

The incidents raised questions about the safety of air shows and races, and Rosenkind said investigators would evaluate the Reno Air Races to see if proper safety protocols were followed.

On August 20, the pilot of an aerobatic airplane died in a fiery crash in front of onlookers at a weekend air show in Kansas City. The following day a wingwalker fell to his death at an air show near Detroit as he tried to climb onto a helicopter in midair.

But proximity to the planes is clearly a draw for the annual Reno race, which advises on its website, "Always remember to fly low, fly fast and turn left."

Mike Draper, a spokesman for the races, said the planes sometimes fly at high speeds "about 50 feet off the ground and it's an exciting, exciting sight."

The thrill has been a deadly one on occasion, with the nine deaths on Friday marking 28 people killed in the history of the race, flown every year in Reno since 1964, Draper confirmed.

Reno Mayor Bob Cashell told reporters this year marked the first time that spectators had been killed, saying that past fatalities had been limited to pilots.

In an interview for the May issue of Sport Aviation magazine Leeward, who bought the plane in 1983, described the modifications he made to the fighter, saying he had trimmed the wings by 10 feet, among other things.

The magazine said it was built during World War II and named after Chicago Bears running back Red Grange, who went by the nickname "The Galloping Ghost."

Asked by the magazine how fast his plane could go, he said: "There are some things you never tell the competition and that's one of them. But it's fast. Really fast."

A website for Leeward Air Ranch Racing Team features pictures of "The Galloping Ghost" and says such planes can race at more than 500 miles per hour.

"These (pilots) are always on the edge knowing one wrong move, in one split second, could mean the end," the site says.

By Saturday afternoon, makeshift memorials had sprung up at the airfield north of Reno, including flowers and tiny white, wooden crosses memorializing the dead.

A wooden sign leaning against a fence read: "To the men, women, and children who lost their lives on 16 September 2011 you're in God's hands now. Rest in peace. galloping ghost #177 clear for take off ... fly to the angels."

(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Mary Slosson; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst)

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Witness: With President Bush after the planes hit on Sept 11 (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two Reuters reporters traveled with George W. Bush on September 11, 2001 on what began as a feel-good trip to Florida to promote education.

Here are some of their memories of that day, and those that followed, as they watched Bush's evolution from the leader of a country enjoying peace and prosperity to a wartime president.

Arshad Mohammed:

"Mr. President, are you aware of the reports of a plane crash in New York?"

I called out that question to Bush in the Florida classroom where, unbeknownst to me, he had just learned the second World Trade Center tower had been hit by an airplane.

Those minutes in the Emma E. Booker Elementary school, where Bush silently came to grips with the attack on the United States illustrate the blessings and the frustrations of being in the media pool that travels everywhere with the president.

On the one hand, we witness history in real time -- watching White House chief of staff Andrew Card whisper into Bush's ear as he sat with second graders, and enjoying direct access to the president to lob questions at will.

On the other, as in every White House, the information flow is tightly controlled and our questions often go unanswered.

Standing in the classroom, we knew the first tower had been hit, but not the second and we had no idea what Bush had been told by Card, nor any clear sense of what might happen next.

Bush brushed off my question and emerged a short while later in the school library to say: "Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country."

Caught off guard by the hijacked plane attacks, Bush gave an initially halting response, and spent the day flying across the country on Air Force One fleeing some unseen enemy instead of returning immediately to Washington, moves that raised doubts about his leadership in the tumult of the crisis.

Only days later, when he visited the smoking remains of the downed World Trade Center towers would the new president seem to regain his footing with a dramatic, impromptu speech atop a crumpled firetruck and a vow to punish the attackers.

AIR FORCE ONE HEADS FOR POINTS UNKNOWN

Bush sped away from the school in a long motorcade.

According to the 9/11 Commission Report, the president learned of the attack on the Pentagon on his way to the airport and he grudgingly accepted the Secret Service's advice that he not return to Washington as he wished.

Before we boarded the plane, a team of security agents and sniffer dogs checked the media pool at the foot of the stairs -- an unusual step as we'd already been screened once -- and one that suggested the Secret Service was taking no chances.

Near the back stairs, a White House official, in a rare display of emotion, bellowed out to ask if everyone was on board.

Virtually everyone else -- from the security personnel who protect the plane to the news photographers who track the president -- had their game faces on.

Within minutes of takeoff, it was clear we were not flying home along the Florida seaboard on the route we had taken the day before, with beaches and blue water beneath us.

Instead, we flew over land, made at least one sharp turn, and climbed steeply to an altitude far beyond normal.

In the back cabin, the press pool was on edge but unaware of the frantic attempts to remain in touch with the White House from the front of the plane.

Like most passengers, we were riveted by live images of the attacks broadcast on a TV screen at the front of our cabin, at one point watching in disbelief and horror as one of the twin towers collapsed.

'GET TO THAT WINGTIP -- NOW!'

We had no idea where we were going until a young press aide told us our destination was Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, that Bush would make a statement, and that we could report what he said but not where he said it.

On landing, there was none of the pomp and ceremony that normally awaits the president.

Instead, before Bush descended from the Boeing 747, soldiers encircled it, with an officer at one point brusquely ordering one to "get to that wingtip -- now!"

It was as if the military, in all its might, feared that the president's plane was not safe sitting in the middle of a vast tarmac at a base where his very presence was a secret.

Barred from using our mobile phones so that the calls could not be traced to give away Bush's location, reporters were taken to a windowless conference room. Aides scurried to set up a podium and two flags for Bush to make a statement we could later report from "an undisclosed location."

As we waited, someone said news of Bush's arrival had been broadcast on local TV. Quickly confirming this with an Air Force officer, an aide told us we could call our editors.

After vowing to "hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts," Bush got back on Air Force One with a much-reduced entourage -- leaving behind aides, Secret Service agents and members of the media, including me, to be flown back to Washington on a back-up Air Force jet.

Steve Holland:

Most members of the White House press corps who were in Florida to cover Bush found themselves abandoned. Civilian aviation had been grounded, and it was not until the next day that we gave up on flying home, chartered buses and loaded up on snacks for an overnight drive back to Washington.

Enmeshed in a traffic jam the next morning, the first sense we got of the devastation beyond TV images was a view of the Pentagon from the I-395 highway. Tendrils of smoke were still rising from a long scar in the building left by a hijacked airliner.

The White House itself was ringed by a military cordon. Helicopters whickered overhead. Soldiers carried rifles and confronted passersby. There was a sense of an America at war.

Years later Americans would remark on Bush's ability to study the facts at hand and quickly reach a decision -- too quickly, some would say. But this leader, "the decider," had not yet emerged in September 2001.

After all, this was a president who had taken months to decide on his stem-cell policy and, after winning a big tax cut from Congress the previous spring, he seemed more intent on defining himself on domestic issues.

SMOKE TRAILS PAST STATUE OF LIBERTY

Bush completed his transformation to war leader on September 14, on a visit to Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

Air Force One landed in New Jersey, instead of New York, for security reasons, and Bush and his entourage flew in helicopters to Manhattan. The smell of the smoldering twin towers was obvious from miles away, and a trail of smoke that passed the Statue of Liberty, symbol of America's openness to the world, was a painful image.

On the ground, a thick coating of ash lay on sidewalks and roads for blocks around Ground Zero. A ghostly line of firefighters, their coats covered with ash, stood in silence along the motorcade route, stopping briefly in their struggle to find the remains of their fallen colleagues. The stability of nearby buildings was uncertain, adding to the unease.

Where there had once been soaring twin towers, there was only death and destruction. Girders rose up in awkward angles. Piles of rubble were all around.

Bush had no plans to speak to the rescuers gathered around him as he toured with New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but chants of "USA, USA" from the emotional crowd changed his mind.

He clambered up on the remains of a firetruck, put his hand on the shoulder of firefighter Bob Beckwith, and spoke into a bullhorn the words that would define the rest of his White House tenure.

"I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people -- and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!" he said.

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Christopher Wilson)

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American orders 460 new planes from Boeing, Airbus (AP)

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines is buying at least 460 new planes over the next five years in the biggest single passenger jet order in history. And in a victory for Airbus, it's splitting the work between the European plane maker and Boeing.

American said Wednesday it will buy 260 planes from Airbus and 200 from Boeing Co. The new planes promise much much-needed fuel savings for the airline — its current fleet is among the industry's least fuel-efficient — and modern amenities like Wi-Fi and video for passengers.

It's a major win for Airbus, which hadn't taken an order from American since the 1980s. It can be seen as a win for Boeing, too, considering that it was in danger of losing the whole order to its European rival.

The jets carry a sticker price of more than $38 billion, although big airlines routinely get discounts and routinely play one aircraft maker off the other to get better deals.

The order is for Airbus's A320 and Boeing's 737, the world's two most widely-used commercial jets. U.S. airlines generally use these single-aisle planes on domestic routes. Current versions of the 737 have 110 to 220 seats. The A320 seats around 150.

The 737-800 has a list price of $80.8 million. The list price for the A320 is $85 million. Add about $6.2 million for the neo version.

AMR Corp., American's parent, also announced that it plans to spin off regional carrier American Eagle as a separate company in another cost-cutting move.

The twin announcements overshadowed the news that AMR lost $286 million in the second quarter, as rising fuel prices wiped out an increase in revenue. The loss equaled 85 cents per share. Wall Street was expecting a loss of 77 cents, according to FactSet. Still, AMR shares rose 9 cents to $5.01 in afternoon trading.

In recent weeks, the airline industry was riveted by the drama of Airbus and Boeing competing to overhaul American's fleet, which is currently all Boeing aircraft.

In discussions that lasted long into Tuesday night, American decided to buy 200 of the Boeing 737s, with deliveries starting in 2013. Half are expected to be equipped with updated, more fuel-efficient engines. The airline said it will take options for another 100 737s.

American also will buy 260 planes from Airbus's A320 series with deliveries starting in 2013, and take options and purchase rights for 365 more. Starting in 2017, American will get the first of 130 of a new Airbus plane called the A320neo — for new engine option — which Airbus claims will be 15 percent more fuel-efficient than current jets when it goes into service in late 2015.

American said the new planes will give it the youngest fleet among similar U.S. airlines within five years, although Delta Air Lines Inc. is also considering a large order to update its domestic fleet.

Customers should notice a big difference from American's current MD-80s, which many of the new planes will replace. The newer 737s have better lighting, more overhead space and entertainment systems, which the MD-80s lack. They're also less noisy.

American said it will move toward having on-board Internet across its domestic fleet, and the new planes will better seats in both coach and first class, American said.

Those amenities are important to business travelers, and "these airplanes are going to allow us to make a lot of progress on that front," said AMR Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey.

American has used Airbus planes before, although only a few dozen of them — it grounded the last one in 2009. When American intensified plans to overhaul the fleet a couple of years ago, Chicago-based Boeing was seen as the favorite.

In recent months, Boeing has publicly debated whether to put a new engine on the 737 or take the more radical and costly but perhaps rewarding move of developing an entirely new plane. Airbus, meanwhile, was forging ahead by taking hundreds of orders for the A320neo.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders called American's decision "a strong vote of confidence in our product in the important North American market." Airbus is part of European Aeronautics Defence & Space Co. Shares of EADS rose 3.6 percent to euro24.79 on in Paris. Boeing shares were up $1.77, or 2.5 percent, to $72.30.

Airbus now has almost 1,200 firm orders and commitments for the A320neo, and has announced plans to increase production to 42 per month in 2013.

American desperately needed the upgrade. Its fleet of more than 600 planes averages about 15 years in age, among the oldest in the U.S. airline industry. At a time when the airline is paying more than $3 for a gallon of jet fuel, one-third of the fleet consists of fuel-guzzling MD-80s.

"The plan was to replace those MD-80s over seven or eight years," said Mike Boyd, an aviation consultant who studied American's fleet for its pilots' union. "Well, American can't wait that long, not with fuel over $3 a gallon. They've got to unload those MD-80s."

American said the new planes will burn 35 percent less fuel than MD-80s.

"This is just a no-brainer economic home run from day one when the airplanes show up," Arpey said.

The need for fuel-efficiency was evident in AMR's second-quarter results. Revenue rose to $6.11 billion from $5.67 billion a year ago, thanks to higher fares and fees. But American's fuel bill rose 33 percent — an increase of $547 million from the same period last year, outstripping the gain in revenue. Fuel has overtaken labor as the airline's biggest expense.

Analysts expect all the other major airlines to post a profit for the quarter. United Continental Holdings Inc. and US Airways Group Inc. report earnings tomorrow. Delta reports next week.

American said it got $13 billion in financing commitments from Airbus and Boeing to help buy the new planes. But AMR already has $17.1 billion in debt, and analysts wonder about the wisdom of borrowing more while the company is still posting huge losses.

"We understand that American's fleet (and brand) are tired," UBS analyst Kevin Crissey said in a note to clients, "but this announcement represents a ton of new capital being put into a failing business model."

___

Airlines writers Joshua Freed in Minneapolis and Scott Mayerowitz in New York contributed to this report.

David Koenig can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/airlinewriter

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