DEATH OF THREE AVIATORS

Evening Star, Issue 14495, 21 February 1911, Page 4

DEATH OF THREE AVIATORS

To the already appalling list of disasters which have marked the progress of the science of aviation during the past year lias to hr- added in the dosing home on© which will probably cause more widespread regret and dismay than any other. Mr John 15. .Moisant,' the hero of the first ilight by aeroplane from Paris to London, and one of the most striking figures in the aviation world, met his death at New Orleans on December 51, when competing for the Michelin trophy. In the ootlßsa of hLs Ilight something suddenly went wrong with the machine, which fell with q crash to the ground. During the time he had been in America Air Moisant, an American by birth, had won his way to the jiOoH graces oi ail followers of tebft eporiTtherc by his daring, pluck, and aMEL At the recent international meeting ha was one of the most prominent figUMf amongst the giants of the air and the vid. tor in the .State of liberty flight, whiefe the Wright, brothers declined to participate in owing to the hazards involved, a«d which resulted in considerable fricWoa be* tween some of the competitors end the gd* verniug body of the meeting. Mr MjXJ> ant’s death brings the total of arfatlotij fatalities for the year up to thirty, aJU# the total for December alone up tfl The accident occurred while ho w«9 eM tempting to make a landing at Baxshfifit three miles above Now Orleans, When «j :,n altitude of 100 ft the machine euddenjy dipped front part foremost, and; the avlaW) was thrown head first from his seat. £ys died in ten seconds, his nock being brofcflDt The aeroplane was wrecked. At Los Angeles the same day Mr Hoxsey, when competing for tiho M’dhsitt prize, mot with the same fat© so Mjt Moisant. In the fall turned, over twice, but the wwlw not thrown from the seat. Whoa pinfeed up it was found his jaw was ttatwfaWd and his goggles shattered, th® daw £«a» tearing- ih* eyes. .Ml the right nhswk? both legs were broken, and a stanchion had pierced th© body. TheWS* a tor's barograph, however, and showed ho had fallsm 563fi> 0» total altitude of 7,142 ft. laOM. A* aviator, who was among th© ntw toUq off the wreckage, expressed tho ill at the fall was due ontfMy so tW treacherous air currents. Hoxsey teoeollj boat tho altitude record. At St. Qyx (Franco), on Decsnrba* djk Lieutenant Oaumont fell fauna 260 ft while making a flight and was 13H«| Prior to the lieutenant's death. Fa Himes hod signed upon him the Cross of the Ltgtatt Tho' deaths of lieutenant Oanpogb (1% France) and of Messrs Moisant and BOXO& (m the United States) bring tho fcoWMBM her of those who have lost their BWffl aviation to thirty-oil in a little over tag and a-quarter years. These figure* 8* elude Mr Cecil Grace, who it is now psgotj* i-aliv certain perished in the Noawi The list excludes, of course, those MWI in dirigible balloons.