A World War II-era fighter plane flown by a veteran Hollywood stunt pilot plunged Friday into the edge of the grandstands during a popular air race, killing three people, injuring more than 50 spectators and creating a horrific scene strewn with smoking debris.

The plane, piloted by 74-year-old Jimmy Leeward, spiraled out of control without warning and appeared to disintegrate upon impact. Bloodied bodies were spread across the area as people tended to the victims and ambulances rushed to the scene.

Authorities were investigating the cause, but an official with the event said there were indications that mechanical problems were to blame.

A team of federal safety investigators on Saturday descended on the site of a deadly plane crash that killed at least three people and injured more than 50 at a Nevada air race show whose motto is "fly low, fly fast."

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration traveled to join colleagues already working on site Friday night when the vintage World War Two fighter plane crashed near the grandstand at Reno Stead Airport.

The pilot, Jimmy Leeward, 74, was among those killed when his P-51 Mustang dubbed the "Galloping Ghost" crashed into a box seat area in front of the main grandstand, said Mike Draper, spokesman for the 48th Annual National Championship Air Races, also known as the Reno Air Races.

"It was like a war zone where the box seats were," said Draper, who said the additional NTSB and FAA investigators arrived on Saturday at the site.

A WWII-era plane has crashed into the box seat area at an air race event in Reno, Nevada, killing at least three people and injuring more than 50. The plane spiralled out of control and came down into crowds in the stands, disintegrating upon impact. Eyewitnesses reported scores of blooded bodies at the scene after the tragedy occurred.

The injured have been rushed to hospital. Out of 56 people hurt, 15 are said to be in a critical condition. Mike Houghton, president and CEO of the Reno Air Races, told a news conference that pilot Jimmy Leeward had died in the crash, Associated Press reports. The 74-year-old veteran Hollywood stunt pilot was the owner of the Leeward Air Ranch Racing Team and a well-known racing pilot.

Leeward's "Galloping Ghost" plane was a P-51 Mustang fighter -- a class of plane that can fly at speeds in excess of 500 mph (800kph). Houghton said there appeared to be a "problem with the aircraft that caused it to go out of control".

U.S. stocks fell sharply Monday as Wall Street got its first clear shot at reacting to Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. credit.

Announced Friday night, the S&P decision followed an especially nasty week for equities, heightening the chances of “a very bad initial reaction,” wrote analysts at Barclays Capital in a Monday note.

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -2.79% was down 302.96 points, or 2.7%, at 11,141.65.

Twenty-nine of the Dow’s 30 components slid, led by Bank of America Corp. BAC -9.91% , down 9.6%. The New York Times reported American International Group Inc. AIG -7.64% plans to sue Bank of America in a bid to recoup more than $10 billion in losses on mortgage-backed securities.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index SPX -3.47% declined 37.71 points, or 3.1%, to 1,162.26, with energy down the most among its 10 industry groups.

Five deaths and multiple injuries were reported after a tractor trailer crashed into a Amtrak train on Friday near Reno, according to Nevada Department of Transportation.

The driver of the truck is confirmed dead and 3-to-4 more on-board the train are dead, said Nevada State Trooper Dan Lopez. Bodies are being recovered from the wreck and an exact head count of all on-board has not been confirmed, he added.

Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno say they received nine injured passengers from the Amtrak crash. And of those nine, two are in critical condition, four in serious, and three in fair condition, according to Dan Davis of Renown.

There was no word on the ages or genders of the patients. Davis noted that the hospital may be receiving 4-to-6 more throughout the night.

Friday at about 11:20 a.m. the Amtrak’s California Zephyr train carrying 204 passengers and 14 crew members running from Chicago-to-Emeryville, Calif. collided with a tractor trailer on US-95.

The pilot who died Sunday when the airship he was inside caught fire and crashed in Germany died a hero, saving the lives of the three passengers onboard by urging them to jump to safety while he stayed behind.

Mike Nerandzic, 53,  a veteran airship pilot who flew for more than 20 years, brought the Goodyear airship to just below 7 feet off the ground and told his passengers to jump. After the three leaped to safety, the airship was soon engulfed in flames and soared to 150 feet due to the loss of weight in the cabin.

Audi is down to one R18 TDI in the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans after Mike Rockenfeller was involved in the team's second horrific accident of the race, following the disastrous Allan McNish crash in the race's first hour. As Rockenfeller, driving the #1 car, overtook the #71 Ferrari on the Mulsanne straight, the two cars made contact, sending Rockenfeller into the barrier at full speed, obliterating the Audi in dramatic, terrifying fashion. The shunt was captured by an unmanned camera and Rockenfeller's on-board cam.

This is the terrifying moment that a racing driver's car flew through the air and smashed into a wall during the Le Mans 24 Hour race.

Incredibly the man behind the wheel of the Audi vehicle, Scotsman Allan McNish walked away from the carnage unharmed despite slamming into a wall of tyres at high speed.

His car clipped GTE Pro Ferrari Anthony Beltoise's car while trying to lap the back marker and slid across the gravel before being launched into the air and spinning around.

At one point it looks as though it is going to land on the marshall's side of the barriers, but incredibly it pirouettes back onto the track side.

A horrible crash for Allan McNish in the opening hour of the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours, he tried to pass one of the slower cars, made contact and went hard into the barriers. Luckily he and everyone behind that barrier escaped unhurt.

If you thought the housing crisis was bad, think again. It’s worse.

New data just out from Zillow, the real-estate information company, show house prices are falling at their fastest rate since the Lehman collapse.

Average home prices are down 8% from a year ago, 3% over the quarter, and are falling at about 1% every month, according to Zillow.
And the percentage of homeowners in negative-equity positions — with a home worth less than its mortgage — has rocketed to 28%, a new crisis high.
Zillow now predicts prices will fall about 8% this year and says it no longer expects the market to bottom before 2012.
“There’s no way we can get to flat, from these depreciation levels, in the last nine months of the year,” says Zillow economist Stan Humphries. “Demand is a lot more anemic than we had previously thought.”

An illegal immigrant has admitted he was drunk when the car he was driving plowed into the back of a car in Maryland Heights in April and killed a young woman in the back seat. Pedro Santos, 27, pleaded guilty in St. Louis County Circuit Court Monday of i

An Oakland [illegal alien... criminal] charged Monday with murdering two children in a Thanksgiving night hit-and-run crash told his 17- year- old nephew moments before impact that he didn't care if he or the teenager died as a result of his speeding, a p

The man police believe is responsible for the fatal car crash on Interstate 440 over the weekend is believed to have entered the country illegally. An immigration hold has been placed on Lorenzo Hernandez Santiz, 21, following his arrest Sunday for vehicu

Officer Kevin Yeagle of the Malvern Police Department attempted to make a routine traffic stop which led him from Wilson St. in Malvern to Shady Grove Road in Garland County at speeds of 100 mph, running red lights and being shot at. Yeagle noted a gold F

A vehicle slammed into the east range gate at Fort Huachuca after a car chase early Tuesday, according to a briefing from the Sierra Vista Police Department. Four suspected illegal entrants were turned over to Border Patrol after the pursuit, the briefing

CLATYON, Mo. -- A Collinsville man whose SUV went out of control and slammed into a restaurant's outdoor dining area, injuring three patrons, is an illegal alien from Mexico, authorities said. Sergio Lopez, 23, of Collinsville, was westbound on Maryland A