Monday, September 26, 2011

Pilots to Possibly Create Air Races Crash Memorial

Some pilots who have businesses at the Reno-Stead Airport are looking to create a permanent Air Races memorial, possibly where the P-51 Mustang hit the tarmac.

"Hoping that the air races would continue; we thought about something as simple as perhaps a bronze plaque permanently laid on the tarmac depicting the names of the deceased, as well as the date, and the box being permanently set aside, perhaps some empty chairs with some flowers as a long-term memorial that we had a tragedy here on the 16th of September."

Tim Brill runs a flight school at the Stead airport, and he and others would like to run the idea by airport officials, when the time is right.

In the meantime, people have been leaving notes and flowers along a fence just outside the airport, to honor the dead and injured. But as far as Brill knows nothing has been planned for the site of the crash. We visited where the plane crashed into the VIP boxes. It's still covered by a tarp, and is still off-limits to visitors. Brill would like to put the memorial there eventually.

"The folks I talked to out here at Stead seem to be in support of that. They all thought it would be a cool idea, not very costly; something that reminds us that a tragedy did occur here."

Brill hasn't put in an official request, but at least one person has offered to donate money to create some type of memorial.

http://www.ktvn.com

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