New Britain herald., 1921-07-11
ANOTHER AIR ACCIDENT.

ANOTHER AIR ACCIDENT.
 Many, many men are flying these days. Mortals are invading the up- per air in their heavier than air ma chimes and doing so in an intrepid fashion that was dream to only the most imaginative of novellsts' Jules Verne, a few years ago. Fly ing is a comparatively safe sport to what it was in its infancy We may take it that it passed its infancy several years ago, that 1t was nursed into a healthy growth during the war when men were accustomed to take the greater risks for the greater reward But it has not yet passed the stage of experiment, 1t IS not yet an art that is to be accepted by the entire populace as com monplace occurrence, it has not yet come to the point where it is fur nishing active competition to rail roads and steamship lines, it is not yet such common carrier that the Connecticut Public Utilities Commis- sion may have to legislate the ma- chimes off of the air highways to save the trolley companies.
 It is inevitable that accidents should happen in the spectacular game as they are happening even today in the automobile world. Add ed to the human equation the frailty of the plane and the unreliability of the motor prove factors that may dash one man or several to death. In a great many instances the par ticuIar weakness that caused the ac- cident may not be traced, the flyers death has put an end to all but con- lecture. In others the pilot himself has been unable to say just what caused his fall.
 It seems that the attention of the public has been directed lately to losses in the service arms of aviation, Army and navy men have figured largely in the accidents. Air bombs have been the cause of some deaths. not only the machines. Yesterday a particularly horrible air crash took place when large army plane failed in the "take-off'' after landing to dodge a storm and crashed into a field of parked automobiles many of which contained spectators. F,x- plosions in the gasoline tanks of the plane and of nearby machines condemned five people to death and probably nearly immediate incinera- ton, while twenty-five sustained injur- les that may, in some cases, prove fatal. Crushed under the automo- piles the spectators were sprinkled with burning gasoline. Peculiarly enough the pilot and his assistant es- capped by jumping.
 There is no particular lesson to be learned from yesterdays accident unless it be that Safety First" is a good adage for spectators, a point that is ignored too often in connec- ton with affairs of this kind Planes should be given plenty of room particularly when they are takins off and making a landing as these are the danger points to the crowd Once a plane is we'll up and the pilot has had a good chance to es tablish his stability the spectator; at least, have no occasion to worry Before the necessary height ha been reached however, there art many chances for a. crash and, upol alighting, plane on the ground is cumbersome thing added to handle The bigger it is the greater it's mo mentum and the more danger t. surrounding objects.
 It may have been an "airhole that threw the big machine off 1t balance. It may have been the fail ure of one of the "warping- planes to work that caused the upset. I may have been a temporary fault o the operator. We may probably de termine, eventually. what caused tn accident. But one thing that is Ger tain is that spectators were too nea the flying field for absolute safety. 
 UNSETTLED IRELAND.