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Show fit ACCIDENT CTIMEERS Crowd Gasps as Airplane Slips and Plunges in Tail Spin. Expert Piloting Averts Pos-1 Pos-1 sible Crash of Second Machine. 'i ' The crash which resulted In the deaths' f Major Dana H. Crissy and Sergeant '"iVirgil Thomas occurred after their plane ! -'ihacTonce circled' Buena Vista field and. "4flew eastward for the landing. The ma- j ihine made a sharp bank in taking the . Hum at a height of 150 feet and was j ,"'-:suddenly seen to sideslip. It then turned Jlnto a tail spin and plunged nose down- j ward into the shallow water. The cheers of the crowd answering the waved greet- ; lugs of the aviators as they first circled t the field gave way to grief-stricken gasps . 3( as the big plane plunged into the muddy water and collapsed. . ci Hundreds of spectators Immediately ran j to the scene of the crash and without j hesitation waded out into the muddy, j Biasnant water to aid in the rescue. The ; firt to reach the crumpled plane were Eimer Finch and C. M. Black', spectators, who ran their automobile to the scene. They pulled a portion of the 'wreckage from the bodies of the men, but found it Impossible to release them until more help arrived. Until this aid came they held the heads of the aviators above the water In the hope that they still lived. Aid Arrives Quickly. In another moment the machine was surrounded by an excited crowd, and, although, al-though, many attempted to lift the bodies, j It was found impossible to extricate them until several wires surrounding them could be cut. It was fully five minutes before a mechanic arrived with pliers and ;ut the encircling wires. Once released, the crumpled men were (u jf ted into waiting automobiles and rushed 'u to medical aid. -ergeant Thomas was , inta'he first man released and was lifted into i n :he automobile of Chief of Police J. Par-;' Par-;' ey White, which was driven into the (cater and alongside the wreckage. Ser- j jeant Thomas was unconscious when i ,frhisked away to the Emergency hospital. I Virle died before the hospital was reached, i y-x was several minutes later that the . fwrushed body of Major Crissy was taken '.virom the mass of debris. He was dead. M Each of the pilots of the racing ma-Ixhines ma-Ixhines who witnessed the fatal accident Attributed the crash to the sharp bank )f the machine in making the turn, which Jr. "used it to slip sideways toward the ' "earth. The speed of the plane, they said, --'it this time was not sufficient to allow I v; return of control to the pilot. With this; ontrol lost, the machine turned nose i down and plunged into the water and crumpled. The heavy engine of the plane vvns almost completely burled In the mud. i he machine, with the possible exception ot the engine, is a total loss. Crissy Popular Officer. Major Crissy was commanding officer at Mather field, Sacramento, Caf, where no had been stationed since August 1 Jrevious to that time he was executive ot fleer at Rockwell field, San Diego He was a very popular officer, according to Major Carl Spatz and Captain L S Smith, who were associated with hlni there. The major was 31 years of age and a graduate of West Point of the class of mi . Afterward he was instructor of mathematics at West Point. During the war Major Crissy was commanding officer of-ficer of the ground schoo; for aviation at Princeton university. He is survived by his wife and two small daughters, who are living at Mather field. Sergeant Thomas, his mechanician, was -0 years of age, and, according to Captain Cap-tain Smith, who was well acquainted with him, was rated by his officers and fellow noncommissioned officers as one of the best mechanicians in the air service, and a pilot of no mean ability. The watch on Sergeant Thomas's wrist stopped at 4:13 o'clock, which, set by Pacific coast time, indicated that the crash occurred at 5:13 o'clock mountain and Salt Lake time. Sergeant Thomas was a graduate of the aeronautical school in St. Paul and had been stationed at Mather field since July. Previous to that time he was stationed sta-tioned at Rockwell field. Bodies to Be Shipped. The bodies of Major Crissy and Sergeant Ser-geant Thomas will be sent to the homes of their parents, according to Captain Voss, who has taken charge of them and has wired Mather field to obtain ob-tain information regarding the places to which the bodies are to be sent. The bodies of the dead aviators were removed from the hospitals last night to the Qualtrough-AUcott undertaking establishment. es-tablishment. According to E. M. Qual-trough, Qual-trough, Major Crissy's skull was fractured, frac-tured, his -right arm and right leg fractured frac-tured and the pelvic bone broken. Sergeant Ser-geant Thomas sustained fractures of the skull, left arm, right leg and left shoulder. shoul-der. The bodies of both were covered with cuts and bruises. A second crash occurred yesterday when Lieutenant Hall's machine, No. 55, hit the ground at a spot east of the flying field, separated from the main field by a high embankment. With the plane still going at a speed of more than thirty miles an hour and running along i the ground, the wheels hit the bank, which sloped to a high peak, sending the machine sailing from the ground in a high leap, with its running gear broken and dangling. Catastrophe Averted. The crowd held its breath as the plane made a high arc and descended again toward the ground. It was evident that a crash was inevitable. It hit the ground in a cloud of dust and swerved sharply, plowing its nose into another low em- bankment circling the field. Reaching ' the plane the crowd found the aviators climbing from the fuselage unhurt, though disgruntled because their part in the race was over. Although this machine was not badly damaged, the crash has eliminated it entirely en-tirely from the race. One wing waa broken loose from the fuselage, the propeller pro-peller smashed and the radiator and crank case crumpled. Captain C. H. Voss characterized this landing as the best, made at the field yesterday despite the crash, because of the manner in which the pilot handled his machine when his running gear had been knocked off. Most pilots, he said, would have been in danger of serious accident ac-cident in such a predicament, and, the skill of an experienced pilot was necessary neces-sary to right the plane without grave danger of a real crash. |