Harold Geiger Major Harold Geiger ( October 7 , 1884 - May 17 , 1927 ) was US military aviator number 6 , who was killed in an airplane crash in 1927 . He was also a balloonist . Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory . Biography . He was born on October 7 , 1884 in East Orange , New Jersey to Frederick C . Geiger and Josephine Dodd Squier . He attended East Orange High School . Geiger was a cadet at the United States Military Academy June 16 , 1904 to February 14 , 1908 , when he was graduated as an Army second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps . He was promoted to first lieutenant November 8 , 1908 . As a lieutenant , Geiger commanded the aviation assets of the United States Army Signal Corps in the Hawaiian Islands . The first Army airplanes , pilots and crews arrived in Oahu in July 1913 . The planes were based at Fort Kamehameha , near present - day Hickam Air Force Base . Lieutenant Geiger arrived in Oahu with two Curtiss Aeroplane Company seaplane s , a mechanic , 12 enlisted men , and other equipment . However , Geiger ’ s aircraft were in poor shape . His flights were limited to short flights in Pearl Harbor and a longer flight to Diamond Head , Hawaii and back to Fort Kamehameha . Geiger was ordered to cease all flying operations in late 1913 because the trade winds were too strong . The airplanes were sold locally , and the engines were sent back to the North Island Flying School . The Hawaiian Islands would not see any more Army aviation activity until 1917 . Balloons and dirigibles . Geiger completed courses at the U . S . Army Balloon School in April 1917 , and later during World War I served overseas with the Army ' s Balloon Section Headquarters in France as a lieutenant colonel . He completed dirigible studies in France and Italy . He was attached later to the Ambassador ' s staff in Berlin . While in Germany , Major Geiger sent reports to the Chief of the United States Army Air Service on the construction of the dirigible USS " Los Angeles " , and repeatedly urged that the craft , which was later taken over by the Navy , be purchased by the Army . He was on the " Los Angeles " on its transatlantic flight . Geiger also commanded the Army Balloon School at Ross Field , Arcadia , California . By 1927 , Geiger was commandant of Phillips Air Field at Aberdeen , Maryland . On May 10 , 1926 , Major Geiger was slightly injured in a mid - air collision between two airplanes at Langley Field , near Hampton , Virginia . While attending the Air Corps Tactical School at Langley Field , his airplane and another flown by fellow student Horace Meek Hickam hit each other and crashed . Death . On May 17 , 1927 , Geiger died in the crash of an Airco DH . 4 he was flying . A newspaper article reported six mechanics and officers at the Middleton Air Station , at Olmsted Field , Pennsylvania as saying that Geiger ' s airplane dove into the ground from a height of . Geiger managed to jump out just as the airplane struck the ground and burst into flames . He made desperate efforts to get clear of the wreckage and , according to the onlookers , half crawled and ran as far as the tail of the machine before he was overcome . There he dropped and the flames prevented the watchers from getting near enough to rescue him . Major Geiger was buried at Arlington National Cemetery . Legacy . In 1941 , the United States Department of Defense purchased the area then known as Sunset Field from Spokane County , Washington as a World War II training facility for future pilots of the Boeing B - 17 Flying Fortress and the Douglas C - 47 Skytrain . Following the acquisition , it renamed the facility Geiger Field in honor of Major Geiger . In 1946 , a portion of the airfield was designated a municipal airport , and commercial airline operations were moved from Felts Field to Geiger Field . In 1960 , the facility was renamed Spokane International Airport .