Adam RasmussenChannel 2 News
The aftermath of the Reno Air Races crash has been traumatic for everyone involved, especially those wounded.
But on Sunday, one victim told his story from his hospital bed at Renown Medical Center in Reno. Spectator Ed Larson was just yards away when the plane crashed. He was standing in the aisles near the tarmac when he looked up and saw pilot Jimmy Leeward's plane going out of control. He says when he saw the plane coming at him, his first instinct was to run.
"A second later the thing crashes right behind me and all I remember is I'm trying to run, I see stuff coming," says Larson. "And then that's the last thing I remember."
As 59-year-old Larson ran he was hit in the back of the head by debris and one of his Achilles tendons was cut. His calf was shredded apart and his shoulder was separated.
"Whatever hit me in the head knocked me out and I landed," he says. "I must have been out."
Larson says he only heard there was a lot of carnage at the scene. The next thing he remembers is waking up in a military helicopter taking him to the hospital.
"I woke up when they were loading me into the helicopter," he says. "And I saw some stuff, but even then I was pretty out of it."
Larson's wife Sherry was in San Diego when the crash happened. After an EMT called her, she jumped on a plane to Reno, finally seeing her husband after he was out of surgery.
"They told me that the plane hit 20 feet away from where Ed was standing," she says. "And it was going 500 mph straight down. So I mean for him to be alive is amazing."
Larson says he has two months of rehab ahead of him, but is grateful he survived such a horrific tragedy.
"It just makes you appreciate to be alive," he says. "And that's the first thing that I can say is that I got extremely lucky."
