Professor Explains Possible Cause Of Deadly Reno Crash

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- Although the investigation into the shocking crash Friday at the Reno Air Races will take months to complete, a Sacramento professor explained what he thinks caused the World War II-era plane to nosedive straight into the ground.

"The airplane comes with a little tab here, which can be moved from the cockpit," Sacramento City College aeronautics professor Kit Sodergren tells CBS13's Maria Medina.

The trim tab appears to be missing from Jimmy Leeward's P-51 Mustang he called "The Galloping Ghost." Video footage shows Leeward shooting straight up in the air and then straight down. The crash has resulted in 10 deaths, including Leeward, 74, of Ocala, Fla.

"If you lose the trim tab, the airplane is going to pitch up like that," Sodergren says.

He says the sudden and violent G-forces of the plane rocketing upward also meant Leeward likely passed out. A photo captured of the plane before it crashed shows an empty cockpit -- increasing speculation Leeward was slumped over because of a medical episode.

"That sudden motion like that can be as high as 10 Gs, which will cause the blood in the pilot's brain to flow down into his legs so he goes unconscious temporarily," Sodergren says.

Witnesses claim they heard something fall from the sky before the crash and NTSB investigators found parts of a tail system nearby, but tests still have to show whether it's from Leeward's plane.

It'll be months before investigators know exactly what turned a popular air show into a day of tragedy and mourning.

"I was a crew chief in Reno for five years in the '80s and I was there for fatalities. You don't want to see it, you don't want to see it."