It might have been "Dazzlin Donna" at one time, but for the past two years
at least it's been called "Stang". And yes, it was Bob Odegaard's plane.
The other Mustang was the "homebuilt" P-51A, "Precious Metal". They were
landing in formation on Runway 36, Stang was in the lead. As Stang touched
down on his mains it appeared he began to slow down while the P-51A was
still airborne. I didn't see the actual collision, but talked to a number of
people who did and the stories were consistant. The P-51A overtook Stang,
and its prop tore off Stang's left stab and cut a slash in Stang's fuselage.
The impact knocked Stang's tail down, which then bounced back up and Stang
pitched over on its nose and slid off the side of the runway with its nose
on the ground.
Meanwhile, the P-51A pitched up, rolled over inverted and came down
nose-first, then slammed on its back. There was a flash of fire and from
where I was sitting way to the north about the middle of Runway 36 it
looked as though the fire went out, but people closer said it kept burning
until the firetrucks arrived.
I heard the crowd gasp and turned in time to see the P-51A pitching up and
rolling inverted to nose-down and Stang pitching over onto her nose and
sliding off the runway. Stang's pilot after a minute or so was able to get
out and slide down the nose of the Mustang. He ran towards the 51A, but
after getting pretty close, moved back away (the airplane was on fire as I
said, though I couldn't see that from where I was). Emergency vehicles
responded immediately, a couple of firetrucks and an ambulance. When the
ambulance didn't leave the scene we knew it was bad. I moved down closer
to the south end of Runway 36 to see what was happening. Finally a couple
of hours after the accident they lowered Stang's tail to the ground and
towed her off (to Basler Aviation I presume). Not long after they loaded a
body wrapped in silver blankets into the amulance and it left. Then a
little while later they flipped the P-51A over with a crane. As they
lifted the P-51A's tail up, something must have sparked, all of the rescue
workers suddenly ran away from the airplane, including the crane operator.
The firemen sprayed the plane down some more, and after awhile they
finally finished flipping the P-51A over onto its wheels. The whole top of
the fuselage was missing, but I don't know how much was from the crash and
how much from the rescue workers cutting away fuselage to free the pilot.
The engine was completely ripped away from the aircraft.
It was a very tragic day...
Scott Wilson