It was a beautiful day for a homeschooling field trip to the Reno National Championship Air Races. For the last five years, we have gone on Friday when homeschool groups and schools can get in free. This year there were five homeschooling groups (ours with well over 150 and at least one other with at least 30) plus some public school classes.
We went ahead and left a little after 2pm. In fact, several families in our group started leaving around 2-3pm for a variety of unplanned reasons. There was even a family we know of that left about 15 minutes before the crash. A couple of families who fully intended to be there had decided not to attend pretty much at the last minute, also.
As far as I know, there were only two of our families still there when the crash happened just after 4pm. Both of the moms are close friends of mine. One of them had taken the kiddos out into the vending area while her hubby was still watching in the stands. While the kiddos and my friend didn’t actually see it happen, they were separated from their dad/hubby for a bit and still in the midst of chaos.
- Why were we gone and safe and her family was still there right in the middle of it all?
- If I had worked harder at meeting up with them, would they have left with us? Would they have moved further away from the crash site to sit with us?
- Would we have still been there if we met up? Would we have been right in the middle of it all?
It was wonderful and therapeutic talking with her at length a few days later. Her hubby was able to help a great deal, because he is a first responder and was “right there”. He also had the quickness of mind to tell her to get down and cover their son before the impact. Would I have thought and moved soon enough? Or would I have just stood there with my chin dropped? The main answer we can come up with is that her hubby was needed in this situation and was therefore placed there.
Facebook was SO helpful in the aftermath. We were able to check in and ask about others. In just a short time, we were able to find out the whereabouts and conditions of everyone. Not everyone is on Facebook, but we all started compiling a list of those who attended and tracking them down. What a relief!
You can click on my pictures to see larger versions. Please remember all of the victims and their families of this terrible tragedy. There were at least 11 fatalities and well over 55 injured enough to be taken to a hospital.
- Update 4/20/2017: “Buddy” still refuses to return even though there are field trips with friends every year (except the one after the accident). He doesn’t even like to know that anyone he knows will be there. ~ My brother-in-love who passed away about two years ago was also there that day (in the stands). He wasn’t physically injured, but it definitely traumatized him as well.
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