The New York herald., 1922-09-25
WAR GAME KEEPS ON
AT SCENE OF DEATH
Mitchell Field Filters Sent
Out to Repel Attack of
the Enemy
THICK MIST BLAMED
Airmen Think Lieut.. Davis
Believed He Was Diving
Through Clouds.
CROWDS HUNT RELICS
Morbid Visitors Flock to Scene
Where Six Soldiers Were
CROWDS HUNT RELICS
Morbid Visitors Flock to Scene
Where Six Soldiers Were
Killed.

Alr service men lOSI lnelr HVeS, tne
war game was continued yesterday
when, several airplanes and a pair of
field guns were dispatched to Long
Beach to repel an attempt Of 'the
enemy" to effect landing at that
point Several rounds of real shrapnel
were fired into the Atlantic Ocean
The maneuvers will be continued this
week
While some OF the higher officers
Rt Mitchell Field are reticent, expert
enced fliers who witnessed the destruc-
ton of the plane are virtually unani-
NOUS in their theory Of its cause.
The crash occurred at 11:05 p. M.
For half an hour before that time an
increasingly dense ground mist, which
later seriously embarrassed the thou
sands Of homeward bound automobiles,
had been drifting above the flying
field like banks OF light clouds Other
causes contributed to the elusive APP
pearance Of this, shifting fog blanket.
Just before Lieut.. Davis took the
bomber aloft Capt. Ira Eaker. who
is an American flying ace and
is also the adjutant of the Mitchell
Field post, had succeeded in dropping
a twenty-five pound bomb of dynamite
directly upon the fragile construction
of wood and condemned airplane cloth
which stood in the center of the field
Rs q target for the ''enemys" air attack.
binding Light and Smoke.
iting volumes of lazily drifting white
smoke to mingle with the rising mist.
At other points. scattered over the field
and slowly burning out. were the rem
rants of several OF the $4,000 candle
power parachute flares which Capt.
Eaker, and Lieuts. C. E. Crumrine and
Newton Longfellow, all of the assailing
force, had dropped TO illuminate the
field before discharging their bombs.
TO add to all this maze of confusing
light and smoke, the four huge army
searchlghts were shooting their shafts
across the field. stabbing through the
rolling mists. One of these. which was
manned by Lawrence Sperry's experts,
is of a 1900. 100000 candle power bril-
lance.
In word. 1t Is the expert opinion of
comrades of the pilot, Lieut.. Raymond
e. Davis. that he mistook these smoky
mists and fog blankets for clouds that
he neglected to consult his barograph
to learn his altitude and. desiring to get
below the cloud bank to continue his
naneuvers. he nosed his plane downward
at a steep angle, believing his altitude
Mt the moment was at least two or three
thousand feet. Pilots who saw the crash
agree that when Davis plunged down.
ward he was hardly more than 400 to
500 feet above the ground and that
during the few minutes he had been en-
tertaining the crowd before the end he
had hardly attained a higher altitude
than 1000 feet.
This theory appears to be supported
by the evidence that when the ship
crashed 70 earth both her motors were
i running at full speed and there was no
audible evidence OF anything wrong with
their steady purring.
Board of Inquiry Named.
Major Weaver appointed yesterday a
board of inquiry to take testimony and
to endeavor to determine the cause Of
the casualty. 1t consists OF the three
senior officers of the post with the ex-
ception of himself. Its president is
Major Davenport johnson. At the
boards first session yesterday II exam
ined the men who had In charge the
Sperry army searchlight at the south
ern side of the field. They were sta
toned not far from where the bomber
struck. The boards findings. which are
expected to be completed within a few
days, will be forwarded to the War De-
partment in Washington for review be-
fore being made public.
Major Weaver issued statement, in
which he said: "In expressing the SYM
pathy of myself and my command to the
relatives OF the deceased desire to say
we also share In their bereavement Boys
priced both as sons and as soldiers have
gone. and In our hearts there Is a sense
of loss that time cannot efface. 1t Is
hest expressed In the silence that fol-
lowed a catastrophe almost too great for
comprehension.
"In recording the records of the
6eaths desire to commend the commits
stoned and enlisted personnel for their
bearing during the catastrophe Men
less old in their duties would have
yielded TO panic and confusion. IL is to
the credit of the Air Service that each
officer and enlisted man performed his
appointed task with dispatch. In spite OF
q breaking heart. In keeping with the
best traditions OF the service"
Curio Hunters Out.
Around the blackened patch where
Lieut. Raymond Il Davis and five ex-
pert subordinates OF the Army Air Serv-
ice plunged 10 death In Americas latest
Martin bomber sightseers and curio
hunters prowled yesterday In thousands.
As early ms seven o'clock In the morn
ing scores of the morbidly curious we're
occurring the scorched field for "souveu-
irs." All day long they fiocked to tho
Hampstead plains by train. by automo-
bile. by foot. by virtually every motive
power save that of the airplane They
found little TO reward them. Major
Walter r. Weaver. commandant OF the
post, who had put force of enlisted
men 20 work almost before the wreck
was cool had all the superficial debris
of the crash and the fierce fire that fol-
lowed K removed before 10 o'clock In
the morning.
But the plane. with its twin Liberty
motors acting like the ends OF battering
rams, had left its imprint deep in the
ground. Now and then some curio
hunter, evading che military guard,
poked and dug under the surface until
he had unearther bits OF ma gnetos, frag-
fnents ~ battery plates or bits OF hose