Police officer “will never be the same” after Nevada plane crash
Posted Sep 20, 2011 7:55 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Colin Harper believes he and his wife are lucky to be alive after a crash at a deadly Reno air show last Friday.
At least ten people were killed and dozens of others injured when a P-51 Mustang lost control slamming into spectators at the National Championship Air Races.
In an interview with The Calgary Sun, the 32-year veteran of the Calgary Police Service says a person is never fully prepared to deal with something so horrific.
The long-time detective, a pilot himself, says he knew something was wrong when the plane entered a giant barrel roll as it began to head towards the grandstand.
“You simply knew there was no possibility of that aircraft having a safe landing,” he says.
Harper says the plane vanished into the ground, only 700 feet from where he and his wife Brenda were watching the show.
He describes the impact as being similar to fireworks, with thousands of pieces of smoking debris being launched into the air.
After the plane hit the tarmac, he says the engine block skidded along the runway like a “stone skipping across the water.”
He says the propeller blade looked more like a pretzel skidding over the pavement.
Emergency crews immediately rushed in to help the wounded while Harper tended to his traumatized wife.
The couple then quickly left after announcers asked the uninjured to leave the area.
Harper says he’s trained not to react with fear during dangerous situations but has never been as scared as he was during those five or ten seconds.
“Honestly my life will never be the same because of this experience,” he says. “I just felt terribly vulnerable, genuinely horrified by what I witnessed.”
