The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1915-03-19
LINCOLN BEACHY
HURLED TO DEATH
Daring Aviator is Killed While Max
ing Exhibition Flight at Panama
Pacific Exposition at San
Francisco.

ETdHClSCO.
San Francisco, March, 14.-Lincoln
Beachy, the aviator, was killed while
making an exhibition flight at the
Panama-Pacific exposition today. At
an altitude of about 5000 fent Beachv
began sharp descent. The wings
| of his aeroplane collapsed and the
machine plunged into San Francisco
bay.
Beachy was completing his second
flight of the day when hte accident
occurred in view of thousands of spec
| tators. Having electrified the crowd
with series of aerial somersaults,
the airman sought to add an ador.
tional thrill with one Of his sensa-
| tional perpendicular drops.
The fatal fall was attributed to the
fact that Beachy entrusted his lifn
today for the first time in several
years to monoplane.
The machine was at an altitude of
about 5000 feet when Beachy shut
off his power. For 1000 feet it
dropped head-on to the earth and
then the aviator grasped his con
troll levers to adjust the planes for a
graceful descent.
The wings crumplcd and the aero
plane, turning over and over in its
I'fall, plunged into San Francisco bav.
narrowly missing a vessel at the
government TRANSPORT docks.
Thousands rushed to tho nearby
water front, but with the exception of
few splintered fragments of the
aeroplane floating on the surface of
| the bay no signs of the wrecked ma
chine could be seen. Launches put
| out Immediately and boats crew
from the battleship Oregon Joined in
an attempt to recover the body of
| the aviator, which was strained to
| the machine, under 40 feet of water.
The BODY was recovered shortly
after o'clock
Hillary Beachy, a brother of the
aviator, witnessed the tragedy from
the deck of the United States trans
mort Crook. He said he heard a crack
ling sound, like the breaking of a
ships mast. He cried out as the mo,
noplane began to plunge toward the
bay. 1t fell only a few feet away
from the transport.
That Beachy was alive when n
struck the water and had sustained
no major injury excent broken log
was the opinion expressed by DR..
David E. Stafford, autopsy surgeon,
who examined the body at the NOR
que tonight.
The face, said DR.. Stafford. was dis
"olored from choking and strangling,
indicating that death was due to
drowning.
Cuts on the aviators hands were
taken to indicate that he had made
desperate efforts to release himself
| from the mesh of twisted wires and
| rods.
/ When the machine fell Beachv was
nroteced by the engine, propellers
4 and hood of the monoplane which
| struck the water first. It was pointed
| out that if Beachv could have Olsen
gagged himself he probably would
| have managed to keep af1oat long
enough to be rescued.
Lincoln Beachy was regarded as
the most skilful and daring Ameri-
can aviator. He earned his reputation
long before the French flyers began
to glide through the air upside down.
Beachy was in retirement when these
feats were heralded and was drawn
back to his desire to exceed the re-
markable flying Of the French
| With an aeroplane OF small wing
surface he flew upside down, made
| spirals while head downward and
looped the loop.
Beachy was born in San Francisco
in September, 1887, and hadc his
first flight in 1905 at Oakland, Cal.
piloting a dirieible balloon. In 1906
he circled the capitol at Washington
He scared over New York city in
July, 1907. His motor failed and the
wind whidlcd the drigible across the
river wrccking it.
His first heavier than air machine
a monoplane, was wrecked at St
Paul in 1910. He made successful
flight in Los Angeles, but there
wrecked another flyer.
May 5, 1911, Beachy was the first
man to circle the capitol in Wash
ington in an aeroplane. He then
startled the world by rfyng owe
Niagara Falls.
| Later he won the first inter-city
aeroplane race in America. flying
from New York to Philadelphia.
Early in 1913 Beachy announce.
that he had made his last flight, as
serting that he felt partly RESPONSE
bic for the deaths of nine aviators
who tried to emulate him. When tn,
deeds of the daring French were
chronicled he returned to flying. In
October, 1913, at Hammondsport,
N. Y, his machine swept several
spectators from roof, killing one.
Beachy boasted that 20,000,O0O per-
sons had seen him fly.
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