LOS ANGELES - Dozens of people were injured and possibly some killed Friday when a vintage aircraft crashed into the ground at an air show in the U.S. state of Nevada, a spokesman and video images showed.
Initial reports suggested 60 people were injured, 30 of them seriously, after the crash at the Reno National Championship Air Races, in which the small plane smashed almost headlong into the ground.
"We're being told that there are likely fatalities," race spokesman Mike Draper told CNN, adding that there were "mass casualties" in the crash, amateur video of which was posted on YouTube and shown on the news network.Stephanie Kruse, a spokeswoman for the Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority, said 25 people were critically injured and another 25 people were seriously injured in the crash.
She says the critically injured were considered to have life-threatening injuries. She says more than 25 other people were treated for minor injuries.Besides the Federal Aviation Administration personnel already there to assist the National Transportation Safety Board in any investigation, the show's spokesman said that National Guard members -- who were on-site practicing before the incident -- are helping emergency personnel to clear the area.The competition is like a car race in the sky, with planes flying wingtip-to-wingtip as low as 50 feet off the sagebrush at speeds sometimes surpassing 500 mph. Pilots follow an oval path around pylons, with distances and speeds depending on the class of aircraft.
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