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Men face cruelty charges in bull dragging
Thursday, July 9
Erica Simpson, 32, of Phillipsburg, N.J., died Saturday at Reno Stead Airport while warming up for the Reno National Championship Air Races, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
"She went into a roll," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor told the newspaper. "She was demonstrating a roll, and the wings came off. That is what the investigation will center on."
The newspaper said Simpson was a commercial pilot raised in Port Wing, Wis., who had competed in the race's biplane class in 2006 and was flying a single-engine Cassult IIIM.
Race officials said three pilots were killed in competition during last year's event and there have been 19 fatalities in the race's 45-year history.