Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-03-06
KILLED
IN A|RPLANE
IN SAN DIEGO
Home Made Experimental
MonOplane Nose Dives
800 Feet to Ground
HAD NO LICENSE
Passengers Warned That
Bird Had No Pilots
License

SAN DIEGO, Calf, March (P)--
Five men were killed Sunday after
noon when the homemade expert
mental monoplane in which they were
travelling nose dived 300 feet to the
earth at point approximately 1000
feet west of Ramonas marriage place
in Old Town.
The dead W. w Bird, pilot and
builder of the plane, Point Iona;
Ralph Craig, Coronado; Chester H
Kidwell, Ocean Beach; Clifford Dill,
Corondo; Irwin Thomas, Ray, Arizona.
The pilot and his four passengers
were thrown against the engine, which
teleScoped through the framework as
the plane crashed. All but one of the
men were dead when taken from the
wreckage. The living man, believed
to have been Craig, died within few
minutes without recovering conscious
ness. Most of the victims were terri
bly, msngled Bird being almost cut
in two.
The plane was flying in to land at
the airport when it nose dived to
earth. Witnesses who saw it crash
said that Bird apparently swung away
from the field to give room to a big
Maddux air liner which was landing
and which had the right of way. AS
the Bird plane swung, it's nose, which
had been above the tail of the plane,
suddenly tipped forward and the plane
half turned as it shot earthward
Bird and his four passengers left
the Barnett Field airport at II o'clock
hi 0rN1sHNi Iic
recruited from among the men
around the field, some of whom had
helped him Oil and gas the plane.
The passengers we're warned by at
taches of the Mahoney airport that
Bird had been refused a pilots Ii
cense from the city air control board
on the ground of inexperience and
that the plane had been grounded"
or ordered not to fly by the same
commission.
They responded, according to air.
men at the field, that they would
"take a chance"
was "Stalling" clear out of sight air.
men said. BY stalling they meant
that instead of the plane plying hori-
zontal to the ground the nose was
above the TAIL 1t required the full
length of the fields runway to send
the plane into the air.
When the plane left the field it
headed in the direction of Camp
Kesrney and landed there some time
later.
Then it took off again and headed
back to San Diego, swinging over
the cit yat about / o'clock.
w. W. Gibson, chairman of the city
air control board, and "Red" Harri-
gan, a member of the board, witness
ed the crash from the Mahoney air.
port. They said the ship evidently
was not airworthy and that when it
was coming in to the field it was
not flying properly but had the left
wing tipped Gibson and Harrigan
said that Bird had taken his machine
into the air in violation of the order
of the air control board.
Bird, builder of the plane, formerly
was a contractor He was injured
some time ago when Jenny" plane
he was operating crashed in the I'll
juana river sands, wrecking the plane
anu Ddu1y ulJuI1IlB bIO Lite pldI1G
that crashed today was built about
two months ago by Bird.
The machine was a monoplane
powered with a Hispano Suiza 900
horsepower engine.
Of the victims of the crash three
were married. Bird is survived by his
widow; Craig leaves widow and Dill
is survived by a widow and a three
and-a-half year old daughter.
Attaches of the Mahoney field said
that one of the victims, Irving Thorn
IS, had come to the office a short
time before the Bird plane took off
and asked for job as a pilot. He
exhibited diploma showing he had
been a flying cadet in the army
schools at Brooks and Kelly Fields,
Texas. ssG NG ~, 'A4A@. 4 ~c&.