The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-10-16
AVIATION VICTIMS
NOW NUMBER 100
Death Roll Reaches That Point
With Fatalities at Rheims
and Rome.
SIXTEEN WERE AMERICANS
France Suffered Most, Losing 81
of Her Aviators, One a Wo-
man-Germany Lost IL.
SIXTEEN WERE AMERICANS

New York. October 15.-The progress
in the science of aviation has been
costly in human life. With the death
OF Hans Schmidt at Berne. Switzer-
land. yesterday the number OF persons
killed in aeroplane accidents has
reached an even hundred.
beginning with the death of Lieu
tenant Thomas L. Selfridge. the first
person killed in an aeroplane, in 1908,
tho list of fatalities has rapidly in
creased. especially in the present
year, when the deaths almost doubled
the combined number for the three
preceding years. In 1905 one man lost
his life. in 1909. four. in 1910. thirty
two. and 10 date for the present year.
siSty-three persons have been killed
Aviations victims include sixteen
mericans-Lieutenant Selfridge, Eu-
gene Speyer, Ralph Johnstone, Walter
Archer, John u. Moisant, William G.
Purvis, Lieutenant George T. II. Kelly.
r. V. Hardle, William r. Badger, ST.
Croix tombstone. j. J. Frisbie, Louis
Rosenbaum. Frank II. Miller and DR..
Charles B. Clarke and Cromwell Dixon.
Franco has contributed more vie
tins to the list than the combined
numbers OF America. Germany and
Italy. her number totaling thirty
seven, including a woman. Nine. Deniz
Moore, who fell at Etamps on July
Il OF the presetn year. Another wo-
man. the Baroness de la Roche, had
narrow escape at the Rheims meet
in July, 1910. when she fell leO feet.
breaking her arms and legs.
German airmen who lost their lives
number twelve: italian, eight: English,
seven, and Russian. five. The others
represented in the list Belggians, Peru
vians. Spaniards, Hungarians and
Dutch.
It has been pointed out that whereas
In the earlier days only the most
ntted. mentally and physically. dared
nights. nowadays great numbers of
amateurs do SO. The deaths for the
present yea: include a number of ayin-
ton pupils, the most recent being DR..
CHARLES b. Clarke. an amateur who
mad not obtained an aviator's license,
Dut who made flight in n borrowed
monoplane against orders ct the Mas
sau Boulevard. l. l.. aviation meet. DR..
Clarke, whose real name was Charles
Clarke Bunting. was once a famous
bicycle rider. better known in yaude-
vile circles for his Globe of Death
act lie had helped TO construct aero
planes In the Queen aeroplane factory
ana ne was anxious to learn to fly
During the Nassau meet a Queen aero
plane. equipped with a powerful Gnone
motor, a different affair from which
clarke had learned to fly. had been
entered by Earle Ovington, and IL was
In this machine that DR.. Clarke made
the flight which cost his life.
double fatalities. in which rider and
passenger were killed, We're common,
seven having occurred, while on June
Is OF the present year three French
men, Captain Princetau. T. LIE Mar
tin and NJ. Landron, were killed near
Paris at the start of the European
circuit race which was won by Lieu
tenant Conneau (Andre Beaumont)
Captain Princetau's motor exploded in
midair. flooding him with gasoIene and
bur ing him to death, and NJ. Iandron
met the same fate when the benzine
in the reservoir exploded. NJ LIE Mari
tin was killed when his biplane pitch
ed into tree. the motor of the mo-
chine crushing his head.
On two occasions aviators had been
goaded to ascend by the teers of spec
tators. On September / last, at the
Norton county Qian.) fair meet, j.
j. Frisbie went up in a crippled hi
plane which had met with an accident
the day before, driven by the taunts
feet the machine tipped while making
a turn and came down. crushing him
underneath Under the same circum-
stances Frank n Miller, Toledo
aviator was forced to fly at the Mans
held (Ohio) fair by spectators who
called him n coward. Miller had
barely circled the field, 200 feet up,
when the gasolene tank exploded. set
ting fire to the machine and burning
its driver to a crisp
Two other victims were lost while
making flights. and their bodies have
never been recovered. They are Cecil
Grace, nephew of Ex-Mayor Grace,
OF New York, and Lieutenant BaEue.
French aviator. Grace disappeared
in fog over the North Sea on De-
cember %, 1910, while attempting a
return flight from Calais to Dover for
tho Baron de Forest prize Of 100000.
He was never heard Of again His
cap. glasses and what was supposed
TO have been the wreckage of his aero
plane were picked UP a month later
in the North Sea off Mariakerke. Bel
glum, and later on March IA, q greatly
dishgured body was brought to the
surface at Osten Belgium, and was
thought to resemble the lost aviator.
The executors of the Grace estate OBJ
iedSS tnc LONDON PROBATE
Court to presume his death on March
81.
Lieutenant Bague started from Nice
on Juno for a trip to Corsica, a dis
lance Of little more than 100 miles.
but nothing had over been heard from
him again. Torpedo boat destroyers
sent out to search could find no trace
OF him. Bague carried carrier pigeons
with him, and 1t Is supposed that
the aeroplane capsized SO suddenly
that he was unable to set them loose.
Just three months before his disap-
pearance, on March s, Lieutenant
Bague had established new record
for an oversee flight by flying over
the Mediterranean from Antibedes to
the little island of Gorgona, dis
lance of 124.5 miles.
Conflicting currents in the atmos-
phere which cause upward and down
ward motions Of the air. and which
have been described by experts as
'holes In the air" have been RESPONSE
BILE for many of. the fatalities. 1t Is
tho ry1rraptS that