The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-01
SpectatIs and Friends Are Unnerld By the Sud-
 a Tragedy iHOxsEY Ap TRIED TO
 AT(|N HIGH FLIGHT After Reachingtyera Thousand Feet in Air H yss Descends and Is Caught { Deadly Air
 dfrents

whose treacneIlSS Hcll hoAsSJ o . eed ana conduetedAxiled the noted avl- ator today. As If .elous Of ms in,repiu- itv tbev seized hinknd his fragile flying ,,acb;ne nupe thenhown out of the sky and crushed out hisife. He fell dead in thfeld from WHICH he had risen but a sholStime before with a ,a,ab;ne nromise to thousands of cheer ing spectators to pieie the zeni'h ol ',e teavens, surpass his Tn phenomehhi ai- titude record and soa higher thah any one man dared go.
 Cross currents, whirll off by vagrant storr that foated in firm the sea, caught his biplane and shot I'm dowh"aru o0' feet to earth
 t1;s bodv lav brokeiI and twisted all r,ost out of all semblhce to a human form All of the spectators Tn the s'a"u- stand witnessed the trFedy, as It oo- cured directly in front of them 'h tue opposite side of the co,tse.
 They sat in awe-stricksn silence un'i' the announcer gave ,ut 'he oio' through the megaphone-
 igIoxsey has been killct"
 Then from every part of the fea' zrandstana came sobbing d women' vho ,.ut short time before had clapped Ter rands to the daring aviator as he apse rom the field for his fatal flight
 Before the Flight
 of course the success of this attenpt contingent upon the kind of weathF in6ef m there.'' said Hoxsey just pe- Gre he left the ground. Some or lhe kmperatures one encounters in the Ih- q attitudes are simply beyond human tn- ,rance Ru, if I can stand 1t, and py notor works as well as 1t has been vol fig, I'll come down with record or 1S'pV Art or more.''
 2k:ven atathat moment the wind, ha54 r., Haiuad A. veloe,,s ', ,,>st. AcsH ti is VT 't1s Nous aviators on ths ground. Afteflne had ascended 1t gained rapidly in NO fence. Moreover 1t created eNlss cheese" atmosphere, the most treachei'ps meteorological condition that man-p ps have to contend with.
 There is nothing by which may ee Iknown why Hoxsey did not go hieffr .han 7740 feet, which his barosrah showed he had attained, but he appt@f .ant,v encountered at that altitude tie same conflicting air currents that nnaiy |overcame him.
 twithstanding this, and with thf same reckless daring he has dispiaYeA turing the last week, he descended p,i ]. series of spiral glides and was per forming one of his thrilling dips when ms biplane suddenly capsized and shot to earth.
 How Body Was Found i Over and over the aeroplane turned as 1t fell, with a speed so swift that of all the thousands who saw the trag- .d, mt one could tell what effort the aviator made to save himsef. when the wreckage had been cleared su1- ficiently so that his body could be reached he was found planted firmly 1n his seat. his arms around the levers. The fall telescoped the biplane
 The steel sprocket which drove the propellers lay across Hoxsey's race the motor resting upon the right side of his body. Every one of the ribs on that side was shattered into frag- ments. An iron upright, broken by +he force of the crash. held the avia- tors body impaled upon Its jagged point.
 The watches of the judges in the stand registered the exact second of 2:12 o'clock when Hoxsey's machine turned over and plunged in its fatal fall. The news of the tragedy was tel .rraphed over wires leading out of the press stand before the machine struck the ground
 The aviator had been in the air an hour and a half when the accident oc- cured and he had sailed again over the summit Of Mount Wilson, whose heights he had conquered twice befor9 since the meet began.
 Brookins C0llapses
 Walter Brookins, who originated the spiral glide and the dip which brought Hoxsey to his death, was standing in front of the press stand watching his colleague of the Wright team per form. Then the shout went up: "Hox- sey Is falling" at the same ant . sigh or gasp of a tremendous volume rose from the packed grandstand. That single sigh was the only sound that aox from the crowd of fully 20 min
 t6er the accident. Brookins
 at the sound of the cry and
 crash. He uttered but one
 Nod His legs gave way and
 Into the roadway. Although.
 been in several serious acci- frsself he rose thoroughly un- nd md cried like child.
 lat time the field announcers hshing about shouting: No br alarm Hoxsey Is all right"
 IFS lie." shouted Brookins Ut
 the announcers. "Hoxsey's dead;
 it." And again he burst into
 Dkins was not the only airman
 me by the tragedy. Charles Will
 the Curtiss team likewise col.
 d. Willard had predicted just
 ment before Hoxsey fell that an,
 lent was sure to overtake him in
 dangerous atmosphere and almost