Board member Robert L. Sumwalt criticized Leeward and his team for failure to adequately analyze, document, and test the modifications they made to squeeze more speed from the Galloping Ghost.
“The way I look at it quite honestly, is, if you’re flying, if you’re modifying an airplane without fully understanding how those modifications can affect aerodynamics, then you’re basically just playing Russian roulette with an aircraft,” Sumwalt said. “As the chairman said, unlike Russian roulette, in this case when you go out and you do those things, you not only endanger your own life, but you potentially endanger the lives of others, and that is what happened in this particular case.”
The board member is merely saying what the Experimental Category is all about. In the land of the free aviators have the ability to experiment, anybody can design and build an aircraft. The FAA don't issue an Experimental Certificate for an aircraft lightly. They recognise because they are not necessarily designed/built/tested by professionals they don't have the level of safety that comes with a certificated aircraft, and hence they are operated on a "your risk" basis.
Fatalities suffered by the public at airshows occur from time to time. The organisers may do their very best, and often it's only luck at times that fatalities do not occur. Count spectator deaths/injuries here
List of air show accidents and incidents - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Code of Federal Regulations
Part 21 CERTIFICATION PROCEDURES FOR PRODUCTS, ARTICLES, AND PARTS
Subpart H—Airworthiness Certificates
§ 21.191 Experimental certificates.
Experimental certificates are issued for the following purposes:
(a) Research and development. Testing new aircraft design concepts, new aircraft equipment, new aircraft installations, new aircraft operating techniques, or new uses for aircraft.
(b) Showing compliance with regulations. Conducting flight tests and other operations to show compliance with the airworthiness regulations including flights to show compliance for issuance of type and supplemental type certificates, flights to substantiate major design changes, and flights to show compliance with the function and reliability requirements of the regulations.
(c) Crew training. Training of the applicant's flight crews.
(d) Exhibition. Exhibiting the aircraft's flight capabilities, performance, or unusual characteristics at air shows, motion picture, television, and similar productions, and the maintenance of exhibition flight proficiency, including (for persons exhibiting aircraft) flying to and from such air shows and productions.
(e) Air racing. Participating in air races, including (for such participants) practicing for such air races and flying to and from racing events.
§ 21.193
Experimental certificates: general.
An applicant for an experimental certificate must submit the following information:
(a) A statement, in a form and manner prescribed by the Administrator setting forth the purpose for which the aircraft is to be used.
(b) Enough data (such as photographs) to identify the aircraft.
(c) Upon inspection of the aircraft, any pertinent information found necessary by the Administrator to safeguard the general public.
(d) In the case of an aircraft to be used for experimental purposes--
(1) The purpose of the experiment;
(2) The estimated time or number of flights required for the experiment;
(3) The areas over which the experiment will be conducted; and
(4) Except for aircraft converted from a previously certificated type without appreciable change in the external configuration, three-view drawings or three-view dimensioned photographs of the aircraft.