The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1915-03-19
LINCOLN BEACHEY
loses HIS life
Falls 5000 Feet Into San
Francisco Bay.
Was Making Daring Exhibition
Before $4,000 Exposition
Visitors.

Beachey's desire to Guido in an un-
familiar mOnoplane, the feats of dar-
ing done in his old biplane, aviation
experts say, was responsible for his
death here yesterday, before many
thousands when he was flying over
the grounds of the Panama-Pacific
exposition and fell into San Francis
co bay and was drowned. The wings
of the aeroplane had crumpled under
the pressure of banking after an
almost perpendicular glide of 1000
feet.
Sunday was the first time Beachey
had made a public fight in the new
monoplane, his previous flights here
having been in a biplane over which
he had perfect control. The aviator
was extremely grave as he took his
seat in this machine and according
to his mechanicians he seemed to
have a premonition of trouble, but
was determined to please the crowd
of $4,000 people.
Beachey's aged mother, Mrs. Amy
Beachey. who lives in this city, col
lapsed when told of her sons death,
and is under the care of physicians.
Beachey made the statement several
days. ago that if he should find him
self falling. he would head his ma
chine out to sea, so as not to fall on
the exposition crowd. He kept his
word, his fall into the bay being
about fifty yards from shore.
The body was found by sailor on
the battleship Oregon, who made two
descents in a diving suit.
Miss Ethel Shoemaker, Beachey's
finance, was not told of his death
until today. She believed him to
have been only injured.
Beachey was completing his second
fight of the day when the accident
occurred in full view of thousands
of spectators. Having previously ell
certified the crowd with series of
aerial somersauljs. the airman
sought to add an additional thrill by
the making of the sensational per-
pendicular drops which usually fea-
tured his flights.
The fatal fall was attributed to the
fact that Beachey entrusted his life
for the first time in several years
to a monoplane. An exceptionally
large crowd had been attracted to the
fair grounds to see whether he would
attempt the same breath-taking
stunts in the new machine that he
had performed in his biplane.
On the first fight all went well
and the aviator's familiar tricks were
INDUCED in with the exception of the
perpendicular drop. This Beachey
had saved for the climax. 1t proved
too much of strain for the frame of
the monoplane.
The machine was at an altitude of
about 5000 feet when Beachey shut
off his power. For several hundred
feet it dropped head on for the earth
and then the aviator grasped his con-
troll levers to adjust the plane for
the graceful descent which had char
acterized his previous flights.
At that point the wings crumpled
and the aeroplane, turning over and
over in it's fall, plunged into San
Francisco bay, narrowly missing a
vessel lying at the government trans
port docks.
Thousands of spectators rushed to
the nearby water front but with the
exception of few splintered frag-
ments of the aeroplane floating on
the surface of the bay no sign OF the
wrecked machine could be seen.
Launches put out Immediately
equipped with graphing hooks and a
boats crew from the .battleship Ore
gen. which was anchored in the
stream a short distance away, Joined
in an attempt to recover the body
that was strapped to the machine un-
der 40 feet of water
The body was recovered shortly
after 8 o'clock.
Hillary Beachey brother OF the
aviator. witnessed the tragedy He
was standing on the deck of the Uni
ted States transport Crook. watching
the flight He said he heard'a crack
ling sound like the breaking of a