The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-16
1Ohnstone DrOwns in Lake and Badger Falls
 Into Pit
ACCIDENTS CAUSED BY
 DEFECTIVE MACHINES
Thousands of Terrified Spectators Watch Bird Men Fall to Their Death--Johnstone's Wife
 Sees Accident

 men, took their lives at the international aviation meet here today In dying both revealed the frailty of the craft in which many more aviators were curving and gliding about through the air, with scarce ly a pause for the deaths of their coll temporaries.
 Death in both cases was due to uneS- plained accidents probably the results of unsuspected defects in the mechanism of the machines and was in no way caused by carelessness or lack of responsibility of the drivers
 Badger, a wealthy youth. careened to his death in pit in the aviation fell There had been flaw in one of the pad- dles of the propeller of the Baldwin ma chine he was using. Centrifugal force broke the propeller upset the delicate equilibrium of the machine and Badger dashed 100 feet to the bottom of the pit His neck was broken.
 Johnstone fell 800 feet under his engino and was drowned as the result of an equally unsuspected defect. Caught under the heavy engine in the Moisant mono- plane. 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 of an hour after he had been extricated from the remains of his engine. He did not recover consciousness. His death was the first serious accident of the meet, al though s5 flyers have dipped and glided for three days and experts say several similar accidents have been narrowly averted.
 to oCi oIaff mobiles, as an amateur. He was 25 years old He possessed an independ- ent fortune and gratified a well-de veloped speed mania. In the early days of automobiles he was among the first to make amateur records at Daytona and Palm Beach.
 The meet here, which began last Sun day. was Badgers first public appear anee. He had flown up to today two hours, 8 minutes and 19 seconds. The f flight that ended his life had earned him possibly an hour more.
 Thousands See Fall
 He fell just in front of the center of the grandslands, and thousands of spec tators were within a few hundred yards of the accident. Hundreds leaped the fence, fou past the line of police and rushe, nto the pit where the wrecked bt ane lay. There was near panic in Ii field and numerous heads were whacked by police clubs. The ac- cident was officially announced and five minutes later, while Badger was on his way to a hospital, interest re- yerted to the men still flying.
 Badger received his first flying les sons at Mineola, N. Y. On June 15 he made successful flight and was grant ed a pilots license. He practiced with J. C. tBud) Mars. and decided to en- ter the meet here with Mars. After the meet here he planned to go to Wheel ing, whence he wanted to fly to his home, Pittsburg. He was entered at a coming meet in Boston,
 Badgers mother died recently, and so far as is known his step-fathef Is the only survivor of his family.
 Johnstone's accident was due, accord ing to expert aviators to similar un- suspected flaws in the mechanism of his monoplane. Just what 1t was prob ably will never be known, as the zine is deep in ithe lake and the wood and canvas of the plane were broken and scattered by the tremendous impact with the water
 Johnstone's fall was witnessed by his young wife, but 1t was not until half an hour later that she was informed of his , death. As the monoplane faltered in mid air, then crashed downward, the young eviator's wife grasped a mechanics arm and exclaimed in fear:
 .'Oh. oh. Pit, he's falling. My boy will be killed'
 Wives of half dozen other aviaters whose attention had been rivited on the plunging machine that was to carry the second victim of the day to his death rushed to Mrs. Johnstone's side and as the machine hurted into the lake and cut of sight, they tried to assure her that Johnstone would suffer nothing worse than duckng. Ft
 Possibly not exclaimed the fear stricken wife, but you could see the way the machine plunged that St. Croix had completely lost control of it. Oh. why don't they hurry up and get out to hm:'
 Wife Frustrated
 For several minutes Mrs. Johnst)ne pleaded to be allowed to go out the lake where her husbands machine had plunged. A mechanic rushed up to the group and assured Mrs. Johnstone that her husband had been pluclled out of the lake unharmed, that boat was bringing him ashore and that he would join her in the hotel immediately. Reassured hy ills information, which had been deliberately invented to calm her fears, she went back 10 her hotel and hurriedy laid oat dry apparel for her husband. For half an hour and more she waited, then a mem Der of the Johnstone faimly informed her Of the aviator's death. The young wife was prostrated.
 Twenty minutes before the accident that sent young Johnstone to his death his father. Dr. Stuart Johnstone and Mrs. Johnstone stood in front of the Moisant hangar with sSt. Croxs wife, watching the young aviator in what they thought would be the last few minutes of the flight. He had started from the field at 3:15 o'clock and had sufficient petrol to keep him in the air until 6:S0.
 Finally, an engagement in mind, pr. Johnstone turned to his wife and oaughter-in- law and remarked:
 Well, I must be going"
 Oh, don't go yet" chorused Mrs Johnstone and the aviator's wife, st Croix will be down in a few minutes" No, must go, rejoined the doctor; Tt doesn't look as though St. Croix would lose his life today. He seems to \ be flying too smoothly for any mishap; he's been up two hours now" Then he and Mrs. Johnstone turned away.
 Less than 20 minutes later the warp ing strand in the Moisant broke, the wings Of the machine crumpled like paper and the machine fell Into, the --~~---r<~~~~
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