The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1916-05-08
Capt. J. Hector WOrden, Well Known ID
Chickasha, Falls to Death from Spec
tacular Practice Flight Near
Dallas
FATAL DASH AFTER
SPIRAL DIVE TURN
MonOplane Collapses and Shoots to Earth,
Body Of Airman Being Broken into
Bits; Drops 1900 to
1000 Feet

Captain J. Hector Worden. veteran
aviator who entertained the crowds
in Chickasha on two fourth OF July
occasions. will fly no more. He was
the victim of a fatal fall from flight
in field on the Greenville road near
Dallas late Saturday afternoon, the
catastrophe following an attempt To
turn to the right while doing the spis
raj dive.
Captain Worden was well known
here. Last July he gave a spectacu-
lar performance called the Bone
bardment of Liege." The Dallas
Times-Hsrald tells the story of hia
last flight as follows:
A little group of spectators includ.
ing his mechanician, Frank Smith.
was at the roadside at the Worden
landing He had been steadily as
cending during the first half hour of
his flight, which was uneventfuly
Then, when at height of about 1900
or 2000 feet, Worden began his ain
trick practice
One loop, made as perfectly as anH
one could perform the feat, was thu
sum total of his effort. Worden CONS
pleted the loop and was flying on his
back. He began spiral dive and
turned to the right.
1T was the same thing which kill
ed Lincoln Beachey,' said Frank
Smith, his right-hand man, in describ-
ing the accident. "It cannot be done.
Spiral dives are made to the left or
to DEATH"
Worden fell like a shot from th9
sky when his great bird-like mono
plane turned with the peculiar twisr
Of the incompleted spiral, and hurtled
through space Once. Smith said, he
seemed to have a chance. Then again
the peculiar collapse like that of a
wounded bird and machine and man
were one tangled mass in the center
of the prairie.
The group which had been watch
ing his flight, and then with based
breath, his struggle with fate, quickly
cranked the machines standing watt
ing and rushed across the field to
wheer the wreck lay.
"Worden was crushed, literally
crushed said Smith in describing the
accident. "He had fallen with terri
Bile swiftness, as the engine was pull
ing to the ground and didn't stop uns
til 1t landed 1t was headlong dive
and he was beneath all the wreckage.
His skull was smashed, his body
torn, and both legs were fractured to
bits. His face didn't seem human.
distorted and torn by something jag.
gew. When we picked him up, one of
his legs almost fell away, and bits of
bone-almost a handful, fell out OF
great cut on the inside of the limb.
| do not believe there was a whole
bone in his body"
The machine was matchwood. twist
ed iron and tattered canvas. The en-
gine, pinning Worden to the ground
and certain death. was buried SO deep
ly in the soil that it took the strength
OF six men, with heavy timber for a
lever, to pry 1t out. One cylinder was
torn completely loose from the others.
During the first breathless drop Of
a thousand feet, it seemed once that
the monoplane would right itself.
Then came his greatest struggle, and
sealed somewhere in the tangled
wreck of his machine is the answer
to why he failed. Under the severe
strain something gave way or the
plane wings collapsed
Capt. Worden has been consistent
air performer for seven years, and has
seen some service in the military
field. He had the reputation for be-
ing the only aviator ever employed by
Mexican army. For several months
he was a scout for Gen. Carranza.s
main army when the first chief was