RENO, Nev. — They came from every corner to the Nevada desert to watch one of the nation's few air races, a daring competition between speed-hungry pilots that pushes the limits of safety.

They all had one thing in common: a deep affection for aviation.

One was a wheelchair-bound recent college graduate who was thrilled to be at the races. Another was a former airline pilot who owned a vintage airplane. Still another was at his first race, attending at the urging of his father and brother.

They were among the 10 people who died when one of the planes in the race, a highly modified World War II-era P-51 Mustang fighter plane called The Galloping Ghost, plunged into the VIP section. The 74-year-old stunt pilot also died in the nation's deadliest air racing disaster.

Among the dead were George Hewitt, 60, and Wendy Hewitt, 57, who lived in Bellingham before moving to Fort Mohave, Ariz., more than a year ago. The Hewitts attended the race with a group from Cascade Warbirds, an Oak Harbor-based group of vintage airplane owners.

"It's hard for us to deal with the news, but we're working through it," Lt. Col. Greg Anders, president of Cascade Warbirds and director of the Heritage Flight Museum in Bellingham, told KGMI radio. Anders said many of the Warbirds members at the scene of the crash helped treat survivors of the crash.

George Hewitt flew as a pilot with Air Canada for more than 40 years. He owned a small post-WW II plane originally built by the same company that made the model that pilot James Leeward crashed in Reno.

The Hewitts lived in a "fly-in" community in Arizona, where residents had airplane hangars near their homes, brother Wayne Hewitt said.

Wendy Hewitt was the former director of development for the Mt. Baker Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Arthritis Foundation's North Puget Sound Branch.

Dave Desmon, a Cascade Warbirds executive officer, told KIRO-TV that he was talking to the Hewitts moments before the P-51 Mustang narrowly missed the packed grandstand and nose-dived into a section of VIP box seats.

"It rolled to the right, back over the top of the crowd, then right down towards us," Desmon, of Everett, told KIRO. "I was pretty much looking at the spinner of an airplane coming at me at 500 mph and trying to decide which way it was moving, so we could move the opposite direction."

Cascade Warbirds is a nonprofit group whose members own and fly a wide range of ex-military aircraft.

Romi Singh grew up with Hewitt in Winnipeg, Canada, and flew with him for Air Canada. He told the Seattle Times the two of them hung around flying clubs and learned to fly in the same area.

Singh recalled how Hewitt volunteered to help when Singh coordinated a round-the world flight by two young men to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society.

"He was very well liked," said Singh, president of Aviation Research Corp. who learned of the news while traveling in London. "This is tragic."

Shrapnel from Friday's crash sprayed the crowd, leaving dozens more with severed limbs, including fingers, legs and arms.

Also among those killed were Sharon Stewart, 47, of Reno; Greg Morcom, 47, of Marysville, Wash.; Michael Wogan, 22, of Scottsdale, Ariz.; and Regina Bynum, 53, of San Angelo, Texas.

Morcom was attending the air races in Reno for the first time on the recommendation of his father and brother, who had attended many times. He was at the race with four family members.

Bynum, who raised livestock, came every year to the races with her husband, a pilot. She was watching the race when a piece of crash debris struck her, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times.

Wogan, the youngest known victim, was filling in for his older brother, who had to cancel his plans to attend with their father. Wogan, who had muscular dystrophy, was sitting in an area for wheelchairs with his father when the Galloping Ghost hit the ground. He, like two of his brothers, was diagnosed at an early age with muscular dystrophy and was wheelchair-bound his entire life. He had no way of protecting himself from the flying debris.

"He was about moving past that (disability) and always driven toward independence," said his brother, James Wogan, in a statement.

Michael Wogan studied finance, graduated with honors in May from Arizona State University and didn't consider himself disabled, said Cindy Simonsen, a family friend who sat with Wogan on the board of a nonprofit organization that helps low-income families. He ran his own business and was gearing up to start a new one, she said.

Wogan's mother had turned to her faith, Simonsen said.

"Her comment was that, 'Michael is running around now on legs never before used,'" Simonsen recalled.

Since the crash, authorities in Reno have been flooded with calls from around the country, as relatives and friends worried about the whereabouts of spectators. Police said medical officials are using fingerprints and DNA to identify the remains of three victims.

"We've had some emotional calls, and it's because of the uncertainty," said Kathy Jacobs, executive director of the Crisis Call Center in Reno. "They’re looking for answers, and the reality is we can’t answer their questions right away."

The air races drew thousands of people to Reno every September to watch various military and civilian planes race. During the races, planes fly wingtip-to-wingtip as low as 50 feet off the ground.

The competitors follow an oval path around pylons, with distances and speeds depending on the class of aircraft. Pilots reached speeds of up to 500 mph.

Leeward, the pilot, was the 20th pilot to die at the National Championship Air Races since it began 47 years ago, but Friday’s crash was the first where spectators were killed. Some of the injured described being coated in aviation fuel that burned.

Leeward, a veteran air racer who flew in Hollywood films, and his team had modified the plane beyond recognition, taking a full 10 feet off the wingspan and cutting the ailerons — the back edges of the main wings used to control balance — by roughly 28 inches.

Investigators said it could take months to explain what happened to the plane as Leeward entered the third lap of the race.

Leeward, of Ocala, Fla., flew in more than 120 races before his death. His father worked in aviation and taught him the trade. Leeward got his private pilot's license at age 16. He was married with two adult sons.

Dan Martin, of San Jose, Calif., flew with Leeward on the set of the "The Tuskegee Airmen" in the early 1990s. Martin competed in one of the Reno competition’s slower races last week and was watching at the time of the crash.

"Jimmy was an icon as far as aviation goes," Martin said. "He could fly just about anything, and he always took a very professional approach to everything he did in aviation."

At least three of the victims have not been identified and more than 70 people were treated for injuries, some of them life threatening. The dramatic injury toll was stroking fears across the nation, as relatives and friends flooded Reno officials with inquiries about the whereabouts of spectators.

"You're responding to someone who was with a loved one at one moment and the loved one is not there the next moment," said Kathy Jacobs, executive director of the Crisis Call Center in Reno. "They're looking for answers, and the reality is we can't answer their questions right away."

Cherie Elvin, the matriarch of a Kansas family, is among those missing. Her husband, Chuck Elvin, their two sons, Bill and Brian Elvin, and Brian Elvin's wife, Linda, were all taken to a Reno hospital with serious injuries Friday. Each had lost some part of a leg, according to a website used by the family.

Gary Umscheid, whose daughter, Rachel, is married to Bill Elvin, described Cherie and Chuck Elvin as "very typical Midwestern folks who love family."

"The family has a distinct love of aviation," he said.