The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-09-19
INQUIRY into
THE ACCIDENT
Finding of Board of Army Of
ficers Regarding Fort
Myer Tragedy.

Washington. Sept. 1S.-Fort Myer. the
scene of yesterdays aeroplane disaster.
which resulted In the death of Lieuten-
ant Thomas f. Selfridge OF the signal
corps and serious injury of Orville
Wright. presented cherries aspect to-
day
Lieutenant Selfridge's body was to-
day removed from the hospital at Fort
Myer to an undertaker's, where it will
remain until the arrival of the young
officers father who wired today from
San Francisco that he would like to
have his son buried in either Arlington
or West Point cemetery. The funeral
arrangements have not been made, but
a military funeral will be held
Professor Alexander Graham Bell will
come from Nova Scotia to attend the
funeral.
Miss Catherine Wright. sister of the
injured aeroplanist, arrived here from
Dayton, o.. this afternoon, and accom-
panied by Charles r. Flint, the Wright
brothers financial agent, visited her
brother at the hospital.
Official Inquiry.
Major George o. Squier, acting chief
signal officer of the army, this morning
convened the board of signal officers
for the purpose of making an official in
quiry into the death of Lieutenant Sell
fridge. Major Charles SALESMAN acted
as chairman, and Captain Charles S.
Wallace and Lieutenant Frank p. Lahm
were the other members present. Lieu
tenant Sweet of the navy and Lieuten-
and Richard Creecy of the marine corps.
detailed to Fort Myer aeronautical
tests, assisted the board in its work.
The wreckage of the aeroplane had
been placed in the aeroplane shed last
night, and the members of the board,
accompanied by Octave Chanute and
Professor Albert Zahm of the Catholic
university, both of whom are authori-
ties on aeronautics, inspected the tan
gled mass.
Major Squier reviewed the findings of
the court after the meeting, which was
Finding of the Board.
The finding of the board OF inquiry
was:
THE board finds that the accident
was due to the accidental breaking of
a propeller blade and a consequent I'M
avoidable loss of control, which result
ed in the machine falling to the ground
from height of about seventy-five
feet
THE board finds that First Lieuten-
companied Mr.. Wright by authority OF
the aeroplanist for the purpose of Off
cially receiving instructions. and re-
ceived injuries by the falling of the
machine which resulted in his death"
The signal corps will proceed with it's
work, and it is understood
the Wright brothers will be permitted
to make their official trials whenever
they are ready, without endangering
their chance of receiving the contract
price of $4,000 for their aeroplane.
Statement by Wright.
Mr.. Wright said today:
The machine was already recovering
its balance when it struck. and / am
sure if we had been twenty-five feet
further up we would have landed on the
skids without serious damage"
Speaking for Mr.. Wright, Mr.. Taylor
his assistant, later said:
THE accident was caused by an ex-
traordinary vibration of one of the
wires running from the main planes to
the upper steel fitting of the rudder
This vibration was so great that il got
in range of the propeller and was struck
by the blade, cutting a deep cash in
the edge of the propeller blade This
caused the blade to break The other
blade of the propeller flew around and
in turn struck the same wire. break
ing it. This made Mr.. Wright lose con-
troll of the planes. Shutting off power
to stop the remaining propeller, which
tended to swing the machine in a cir
cular direction toward the left. he
steadied the machine somewhat, but the
distance to the ground was not great
enough to restore the equilibrium"
Numerous kilograms of sympathy
were received at Fort Myer hospital to-
day, but they were withheld from Mr..
Wright.