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Show Aviator Drowns; Off g - j Another Killed "My Boy Is Falling," Cries Wife as Johnstone 1 Plunges Into the 'r Lake. MOTOR DRAGS HIM BENEATH WATER William Badger Is Killed When Aeroplane Falls Into -Pit on the Field of Aviation' CHICAGO, Aug. 15. Two aviators, William R. Badger1 of Pittsburg and St. Croix Johnstone of Chicago, Chica-go, both young men, loBt their Uvea at tho International aviation meet here today. In dying, both revealed the frailty of craft ln, which . two Bcore more aviators were curving and gilding about hi the air. with acarcoly a pause for the deaths of their contemporaries. Death ln both, cases was due to unexplained unex-plained accidents, probably the, results of unsuspected defects ln the mechanism of tho machines. Badger, a wealthy youth, came to his death ln a pit in the aviation field. There had been a flaw in one of tho wings of tho propeller of the Baldwin machine "he drove. Centrifugal force broke the ,pro-. ,pro-. poller, upset the delicate equilibrium ot the machine, and Badger dashed 100 feet to the bottom of the pit. Ills neck was broken. - 1 Johnstone fell GOO feet under his i engine en-gine and was drowned. Caught under the heavy engine in the Molsant monoplane, mono-plane, ho was carried deep Into Lake Michigan and his body was not brought 'to the surface until an hour later. Badger lived throe-quarters of an" hour after he had been extricated from the wreck of his engine. Ho did not recover consciousness. His death was the first serious accident of tho meet, although thirty-five rlyors have dipped and glided 'here for three days, and exports say several sev-eral similar accidents have been narrowly narrow-ly averted. Badger an Amateur. 'Badger flew. &a he formerly drove -racing automobiles, purely- as- an amateur. He was the stepson of John Goettman of Pittsburg and was 26 years old. He posses,Bedan. ih'denondent.' f.drtune. and igratlileTl ,a '-well-developed speed til&nla. Iht tllo oarlV. days of. .automobiles he .was ambnffthc first to make. Amateur records at JDaJ'.ton&'.and' PalmtBoach.' I T,he meet here :wns Badfer.'aiilr8t pub-ilc.nppcarance.. pub-ilc.nppcarance.. i.Tb.e.lblglrechanlcal slgn-jb'oara' slgn-jb'oara' after Ills, death recorded", that , he ,had flown up" today, .just" 2 'hours, 13 minutes a'nd'iD "seconds. .The..fllght that endod his life. , earned "him "possibly an hour mdre.r 1 He fell In front ot the grand stand and thousands of spectators were within a few hundred yards of the accident. Hundreds Hun-dreds leaped the fence, fought past the line of;pollce and rushod to the pit .where the wrecked biplane lay. The accident was announced through the megaphone and five minutes later,' whllo Badger was on his way to a 'hospital, 'hos-pital, attention and Interest had reverted to the men still flying. ' Through his friendship with Strang", Badger mot Captain Thomas I Baldwin. He bought an aeroplane outright and received re-ceived his rtrnt flying lesHor.s at' Mlneola. N. Y. On June 1C he made a successful flight and was granted a pilot's Ucensu. Captain 'Baldwin after the, accident withdrew, all . Ids , muchlnes . from th , meet-Badger's meet-Badger's mother died 'recently and, so far as Is known, his stepfather, Mr. Goettman, ls InVonly survivor. Wife Saw Fall. Johnstone's accident .was duo, according accord-ing to expert aviators, to a similar .unsuspected .un-suspected Haw In the mechanism of his monoplane. Just what Jl, was probably will never be known, as the engine ls In the lnke. , Johnstone's actual fall wns witnessed bv his voung wife, although It was not until half an "hour later that 'she was Informed of his death. As tho monoplano. faltered In midair, then prashed downward to-ihe, surface, of the lake, the young aviator's wife, who .had boon following his flight closely, grasped a mechanic's arm and exclaimed in fear: "Oil. oh. pity! He's falling! My boy will be killed!" For some minutes .Mrs. Johnstone pleaded to be allowed to crass the field audi out to .the lake where her husband's hus-band's machine had plunged. Then -a mechanic rushed up to- the group and ,n3Bured Mrs. Johnstone that her husband had been drawn out of the lake unharmed; un-harmed; that a boat wns bringing him ashore, und that he would Join her In a hotel Immediately. Hoassurcd bv this information, which had lnen deliberately Invented, she went back to her hotel, and hurriedly laid out dn' apparel for her husband. For half an hour and more she waited, then a member of the Johnstone family 'took her word of the aviator's death- The young wife was prostrated. Father-Was Confident. t Twenty minutes before the break in th aeroplane's warping strand, tho ac-tidnnl ac-tidnnl that sent young Johnstone careening careen-ing Into the lnke. his father, Dr. Stuart Johnstone, and Mrs. Johnstone stood "In front of the Molant hangar with St. Croix's wife, watching tho young aviator. avia-tor. He had started from the field nt 3:15 o'clock nnd had sufficient petrol to keep him In the air until i":30. Finally, an engagement in mind. Dr. Johnstone turned to his wife nnd daughter-in-law nnd remarked: "Woll. I must bo going." "Oh. den't go yet," chorused Mrs, Johnstone and the aviator's wife. "St. Croix will be down In n few minutes," "No. I. must go." rejoined -the doctor, "It docs not look as though St, Croix would lose his life today; he orems to ne ,flvlngtoo smoothly Tor any mlnhap. He's been up two hours now." Less than twenty mlnuloa later .the warping strand In the Molsant' broke. Continued on Pauo Two. DEATH FLIES OVER GHIGAGO mm field Badger Crushed in Fall and Johnstone Drowns When Plane Drops in Lake, Continued From Page One. the wing of the machine crumpled and i the machine hurtled Into tho lake. I Parent Opposed Flights. Like Badprr, Johnstone flew as an amateur. His father. Dr. Stuart John-: John-: stone, a practicing physician here, how-: how-: ever, had refused to buy him an aeroplane. aero-plane. , , Johnstone, who was 26 years old and ambitious, started to build one and went to Prance, whore he entered the Brexel school of aviation. He then went to the Blerlot school and learned to fly. Then, his father again refused him an aeroplane aero-plane and this denial, found today in a 1 letter written by the father to bla aon almost a vear ago, seemed to foretell the fatal accident. "Mv conscience will not permit me to contribute to your certain death by providing you with a flying machine," wrote Dr. Johnstone, "I won't buy you one, St, Croix." After learning io fly In France. Johnstone John-stone went to Havana, where he was the first to fly over the city. Ho gained a record when he wa the flrat to fly n round the wreck of the battleship Maine. Returning to the United States late In the oprlng, he was Immediately engaged by Alfred Molnant and had since been with the group of French aviators. After his return from Havana, Johnstone established es-tablished one American record. During a flying exhibition at Minoola August G he remained in the air four hours, one minute and fifty-nine seconds. McOurdy Wins Race. J. A D. McCurdy won the twelve-mile biplane speed contest In 14 mlnutec, -11 second8. Lincoln Boachy made faster time, but was penalized one lap for fouling foul-ing a pylon. Time for ten laps 15 minutes. min-utes. 10. CO seconds, Parmaleo dropped out after the first lap. Beachy was the only one to finish the . twelve-mile passenger carrying final. His lime was 10 minutes, 19.87 seconds. The thlrty-nlnc International aviators at the meet here will have to share their prize money with a woman for the rest of the meet Matilda Molsant, sister of John Mol-sant, Mol-sant, who was killed at New Orleans, and of Alfred Molsant. already a participant, , joined the ranks of regularly licensed pilots pi-lots here today and prepared to take an active part In the events. President Timothy Woodruff of the New York Aero cluh received from R. S. Sinclair, secretary of the Aero Club of America, official sanction for a meet n New York from September 23 to October Octo-ber 2. In addition to the check for S500 presented pre-sented by the local officials to Harry Atwood yesterday, a special purse of $1000 made up by popular subscription, today was added to that sum to reward the aviator for alighting here. . CP. Rodgers retained his lead in the duration event today, having a total of 3-hours, 10 minutes, 46 seconds. Brooking 's Escape. Walter Brooklns. carrying former Alderman Ald-erman Francl3 Taylor, went Into the pit near the spot, where Badger was killed, but the machine remalnod upright. It craBhed Into the side of the dirt pile, but neither of tho passengers was Injured. |
