This is the first crash that happened during the Showcase flights or airshow in the last 15 years, Knapinski said.
Laird Doctor. F4U. 1999.
I don't want to put words in Mr. Knapinski's mouth but I am assuming he meant "fatal" crash.
I was at Oshkosh in 1999 and saw Laird Doctor's crash. I was also there in 1995 when a DC-3 veered off the runway and ended up in a ditch (no serious injuries). In '95 there was also a text-book wheels up landing by a T-28 (due to a mechanical fault). I don't think anyone could truthfully say that the Oshkosh Showcase has been "accident-free", but I think that fatalities involving the showplanes are (mercifully) very rare.