Disappearance
In these early days, flying was a dangerous endeavour; accidents and deaths were common. Hamel died before reaching the age of 25. He disappeared over the English Channel on 23 May 1914 while returning from Paris in a new 80hp Morane-Saulnier monoplane he had just collected.
On 6 July 1914, the crew of a fishing vessel found a body in the Channel off Boulogne. Although they did not retrieve the body, their description of items of clothing and of finding a road map of southern England on the corpse provided strong circumstantial evidence that the body was Hamel's.
At this time of high international tension, there was speculation that he might have been the victim of sabotage, but no trace of the aircraft was ever found and the story faded with his memory.
His contribution to flying, however, did not end entirely with his death: Posthumously published was a seminal co-authored book on flying.
Read more about this topic: Gustav Hamel