Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1921-05-31
nlyBoard
Ends Probe
OF Accident
Pilot Exonerated and Machine
Found Not Defective
Storm Held Responsible
For Wreck.
Third Largest Tragedy

Chicago Tribune Omaha Bee Leased Wire
Washington, May 30.-An army
investigation board, which COM
plcted an examination of the wrecked
Curtiss Eagle army plane, which
crashed to earth near Indian Head
Saturday night, carrying seven men
to their death, held today that the
tragedy was not the fault Of the
machine or its pilot, Lieut.. Stanley
NJ Ames.
The investigating board COM
prised Capt w. B. Ocker, Lieut..
Paul T. Wilkins and Lieut.. L. N:
Wolfe, all of Boiling field, who will
make a formal report to the War
department. Their report, it is
understood, will set forth that the
plane was not defective in any re-
spect, that Lieutenant Ames was in no
way rsponsible for the fatality and
that the collapse of the giant ambu-
lance plane must be attributed to the
violent electrical storm which struck
with unusual sharpness.
Secretary of War Weeks, who has
taken particular interest in the trag-
edy, tonight said that he believed
the disaster to have been unavoid-
able.
Eye Witness Found.
An witness was found to the
accident which cost the lives OF
Lieutenant Ames, A. F. Batchelder.
chairman of the executive commls-
sion American Automobile associa-
ton; Maurice Connolly, former rep
resentative from Iowa and sales
manager of the Curtiss Airplane
company; Lieut.. Col. Archie Miller
of the army war college, Lieut.. John
NJ. Pennewill and Sergt. Mechanic
Richard Blumenfranz. He is Lieut.
A. M. Hunninmann Of the dragons
of the station near Morgantown. Nd.
who saw the Curtiss Eagle dive to
earth quarter of mile away short
" after Saturday evening.
"The crash was caused by lack OF
lift" said Lieutenant Hunninmann.
| stood a quarter of mile frc
where the plane divet into the earth
and watched Lieutenal Ames vainly
seek safe landing spot az his plane
with its six passengers staggered
drunkenly through the storm-buffet-
ed area.
"Bv lack of lift it is meant that
buoyancy was suddenly reversed
from the wings of the great plane by
a gust Of wind. consequently allow.
ing it to crash to earth. This very
rarely happens when planes arc fly
ing low; in fact, it is once in
thousand.
Sought Landing Place.
1T was about 6:20 when | saw
the big ambulance plane come over
Morgantown. 1t was tipping peril
ouslyy as the 100-mile gusts of wind
struck it. Twice it circled the town,
the pilot evidently seeking a place
to land.
"After the second circle the pilot
dived sharply for a field very close
to where l was standing. He evil
IDENTIFY thought the ground too soft
there and swooped up to escape a
little group of trees directly in his
path. He cleared the trees and
kept the plane on an even keel by
magnificent maneuvering and then
it happened. a.
'Just as the trees were cleared
and safety seemed to lay just ahead,
the huge plane poised for split
second in the air, seemed to shudder
for an instant like a mighty ship
bucking huge comber and then
plunged in a perfect vertical dive,
directly into the earth.
II was the first to arrive at the
scene, although several farmers and
townspeople came close behind. As
l reached the plane three figures
were draped grotesquely over the
smoking motor. This led me to be-
lieve that there were only three oe-
cupants in the plane, as the others
were buried in the wreckage and it
was too dark for me to see them"
Congressman Not Afraid.
Congressman Campbell OF Kan
sas and Walsh Of Massachusetts,
who went to Langley field Saturday
in the ill-fated ship, but who re-
turned home by boat, declared that
they had not failed to make the re-
turn trip through fear of danger.
Both men said they had been in the
air a good part OF the day, having
observed bombing experiments in a
Martin bomber after reaching Lang
ley field, and they had found the air
in the closed plane bad on the trip
down.
Congressman Campbell stated that
the plane had been efficiently pilot
ed on the trip to Norfolk and that
though the air was bumpy the pilot
had handled the great machine COM
petently.
Saturdays tragedy was the third
largest in loss of life in peace-time
aviation. 1t was eclipsed by the COL
lapsing of the giant Caproni at
Rome when Is were killed and that
Of a dirigib1e in Chicago when three
fell to their death and several were
fatally burned when the blazing deb
ris crashed through the roof Of the
Illinois Trust and Savings bank.