A stronger rope is tried, but it also breaks. They attempt to reach the pilots by digging through the mud, but are unsuccessful. The two aviators are dead. The bodies of Commander Davis and Lieutenant Wooster are removed from the aircraft by midmorning. Their bodies are transported to the Langley Field hospital.
Word quickly spreads throughout the world of the crash and the untimely deaths of the pilots.
Polar explorer Commander Richard E. Byrd , who is also preparing to be the first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic, issues a statement later in the day. The deaths of Davis and Wooster came as a distinct shock. We were rooting for each other. I hoped that both would make Paris for the advancement of science. It was this type of splendid American that aviation has lost.