Our previous short article about the possible cause of the deadly crash of Jimmy Leeward’s P-51 racer in Reno, Nevada prompted many well-informed comments, and I’d like take this opportunity to thank everyone for their contribution to the debate.

A natural follow-up to the subject is perhaps this video of Jimmy’s final race. Contrary to many other clips which were widely repeated in the news, it spares us the view of the impact with the ground, while providing a remarkably good coverage of the events leading up to the accident. One can clearly see the violent reaction of the plane as something unexpected knocks it off course. We can also see how the elevator trim tab separates from the airframe near the top of the following barrel roll. This is especially noticeable in slow-motion.

A puzzling detail is that the tail wheel of the aircraft extended immediately at the beginning of the sequence. This could be a sign of how violent the aircraft reaction really was – the g loading could have exceeded the strength of the tail wheel lock.

Segments of this footage have reportedly been turned over to the NTSB to help with the official investigation.

[Final Flight of the Ghost from Jason Schillereff on Vimeo]