The Sentinel=record., 1911-08-16
TWO PLIERS ARE KILLED
JOHNSON FALLS INTO LAKE AND BADGER PLuNGEs TO DEATH
 IN PIT.
Two Fatal Accidents Mars Big Avia- ton Meet at Chciago--John-
 ston is Drowned in the < Lake.

Chicago, Nug. 1.-Two aviators, William R. Badger of Pittsburg. and lSt. Croix Johnstone, of Chicago, both young men, lost their lives at the International Aviation meet here to- day. In dying. both revealedy the frailty of the craft in which many more aviators were curving and glid- | ing about the air, with scarcely a pause for the deaths of their con- ltemporaries.
 Death in both cases was due to un- explained accidents, probIsly the re- suits of unsuspected defects in the mechanism of the machines and was in no way caused by carelessness nor lack of responsibility of the drivers.
 Badger. wealthy youth, careened to his death in pit in the aviation field. There had been a flaw in one of the paddles of the propeller of the Baldwin machine he drove. Centrifu- gal force broke the propelse.., upset | the delicate equilibrium of the ma Ichine and Badger dashed 100 feet to the bottom of the pit. His neck was broken.
 | Johnstone feii 5GG feet under his engine and was drowned as the re- suit of an equally unsuspected de feet. Caught under the heavy en- zine in the Moisant monoplane, he was carried deep into Lake Michigan and his body was not brought to the surface until an hour later.
 Badger lived for three quarters oi an hour after he mad been extricated from the remains of his engine. He did not recover Consciousness. His death was the first serious accident oi the meet, although 35 flyers have dipped and glided for three days and experts say several similar accidenta have been narrowly averted.
 Badger flew as he drove racing au- tomobiles. as an amateur. He was 25 years old.
 He possess an independent fortune and gratified we'll developed speed mania.
 1 In the early days of automobiles he was among the first to make anna teur records at Daytona and Palm Beach.
 The meet here. which began last Sunday, was Badgers first public ap- pearance. He had flown up to to- day, two hours, 13 minutes and IS lseconds. The flight that ended ..ls life, had earned him possibly an hour more. He fell just in front of the center of the grand stands and thou sands of spectators were within a few hundred yards of the acc.dent. Hundreds leaped the fence, fought past the line of police and rushed into the pit where the wrecked bi- plane lay. There was a near panic in the field and numerous heads were wnacked by police clubs. The &C., cident was officially announced and l five minutes later, while Badger was on his way to a hospital, interest reverted to the men still flying.
 Badger received his first flying lesson at Mineola, Minnesota. On June 15 he made a successful flight and was granted pilot'E license. lie practiced with J. c. Bud Mars and decided to enter the meet here with Mars. After the meet he planned to go to Wheeling. whence he wanted to lily to his nome, Pittsburg. lie was entered at a coming meet in Boston Badgers mother died recently and so far as is known, his steptather is his only survivor.
 Johnstone's accident was due ac. cording to expert aviators, to similar unsnspected flaws in the mechanism of his monoplane. Just what 1t was probably will never be known as the engine is deep in the l<xe, aad the wood and canvas of the plane were broken and scattered by the .remen dous impact with the water. 
 Johnstone's fall was witnessed by his young wife. although 1t was not until half an hour later that she was informed of his death. As the mon oplane faltered in mid-air. then