Plane crashes at Nevada air race, many injured

A vintage World War Two fighter plane crashed near the grandstand at the Reno Air Races in Nevada, killing the elderly pilot of the P-51 Mustang and injuring scores of people, officials said.

There was no immediate word on how many other people may have died in the crash, although a Federal Aviation Administration official said earlier that multiple fatalities and critical injuries were reported.

Video apparently taken from the stands and posted on YouTube showed a plane crashing nose-down at the show north of Reno. Spectators could be heard gasping, "Oh, my God."

The plane appeared in the video to have crashed near the stands, although the site of impact was not completely clear. Some spectators also appeared to have been sitting in front of the stands, not far from where the crash occurred.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said local fire officials were reporting "multiple fatalities and critical injuries."

The head of the Reno Air Racing Association put the number of injured at between 40 and 50 people and said the pilot was killed, but had no information on other fatalities.

Michael Houghton, chief executive of the association, told a news conference the crash was "considered a mass casualty situation."

A spokeswoman for Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, where some of the injured were taken by ambulance, said in a statement the center had received 21 patients and no further injured from the crash site were expected at this time. There was no word on the condition of the injured.