List of Accidents and Incidents Involving Military Aircraft Before 1925 - 1912

1912

11 June

Lieutenant Leighton W. Hazelhurst, Jr. (July 1887 - 11 June 1912) and Arthur L. Welsh (14 August 1881 - 11 June 1912) are killed in crash of Wright Model C, U.S. Army Signal Corps serial number 4, in College Park, Maryland, possibly the first multiple-death aviation crash involving a single airframe. (Balloon and airship crashes had prior multiple fatalities. The first multiple fatality airplane accident in history had occurred at Centocelle, near Rome, 3 December 1910, when Lt. Enrico Cammarota and Private S. Castellani became the 26th and 27th people to die in an airplane crash when their machines collided.) Hazelhurst was the third army officer to die in an aeroplane crash. Airframe had recently been purchased by the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps. The United States Army Signal Corps had established a series of tests for the aircraft, and Welsh and Hazelhurst were taking the Model C on a climbing test, one of the last in the series required by the Army. Shortly after takeoff, the plane pitched over while making a turn and fell 30 feet (9.1 m) to the ground, killing both crew members. They had both been ejected from their seats, with Welsh suffering a crushed skull and Hazelhurst a broken neck. The New York Times described Welsh as "one of the most daring professional aviators in America" and his flying partner Hazelhurst as being among the "most promising of the younger aviators of the army". A board of officers was formed by the United States Secretary of War Henry Lewis Stimson, which concluded that Welsh was at fault in the crash, having risen to 150 feet, with the plan to dive at a 45-degree angle in order to gain momentum for a climb, but had made the dive too soon, with the board's results reported in the June 29, 1912 issue of Scientific American. In a 2003 interview, a cousin of Welsh's reported the family's belief that the tests were run too rapidly and that Welsh was doomed to fail by carrying too much fuel and a passenger, giving a craft that would be unable to make the planned maneuver with the weight it was carrying.

19 June

Capt. Marcel Dubois and Lt. Albert Peignan of the French Army were killed near Douai when their planes collided in mid-air, the first fatal mid-air collision in history.

26 June

2nd Lt. Henry H. Arnold, holder of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) pilot certificate No. 29 and Military Aviator Certificate No. 2, after accepting the Army's first tractor airplane, Burgess Model H, Signal Corps 9, crashes into Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts after takeoff, receiving the scar on his chin that he shows distinctively for the rest of his life.

5 July

Royal Flying Corps (RFC) Captain Eustace Loraine and his observer Staff Sergeant R H V Wilson were flying a Nieuport Monoplane out of Larkhill, Wiltshire, England on a routine morning practice sortie. They were executing a tight turn when the aircraft fell towards the ground and crashed. Wilson was killed outright and although Loraine was speedily transported to Bulford Hospital in a horse-drawn ambulance, he succumbed to his wounds only a few minutes after arriving at the Hospital. Loraine and Wilson were the first Flying Corps personnel to die in an aircraft crash while on duty. Later in the day an order was issued which stated "Flying will continue this evening as usual", thus beginning a British aviation tradition.

31 July

An attempt by the U.S. Navy to catapult launch the Navy's first seaplane, a Curtiss A-3 (AH-3) pusher, at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., fails when a crosswind catches the plane halfway along the catapult and tosses it into the Anacostia River. Pilot uninjured. A different source lists the location of the launch attempt as Annapolis, Maryland, the aircraft as the Curtiss A-1 (AH-1), and the pilot as Lt. Theodore G. Ellyson, noting that the catapult was powered by compressed air, was fabricated by the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard from a design by Capt. Washington I. Chambers, and that the aircraft, not being secured to the catapult, reared up at mid-stroke where it was caught by the crosswind. This account, from an official U.S. Navy history, may be the more credible of the two versions. An accompanying photo (No. 650864) dated July 1912 showing the A-1 on the catapult at Annapolis supports the latter description. The first successful launch was accomplished on 12 November 1912 at the Washington Navy Yard by Ellyson in the A-3, according to this source, possibly accounting for the confusion.

13 August

During air-ground maneuvers held by the U.S. Army, at Stratford, Connecticut, Pvt. Beckwith Havens of the New York National Guard suffers engine failure in a Curtiss biplane at about 1000 ft (300 m) over a crowded parade ground, narrowly misses spectators and a cavalry troop as he swoops down, glides down the field and collides with a Burgess-Wright biplane that had just been flown by Lt. Benjamin Foulois, breaking off its tail. No injuries reported, and both aircraft are taken to hangars for repair.

6 September

Capt. Patrick Hamilton and Lt. Wyness-Stuart of the Royal Flying Corps are killed when their Deperdussin monoplane breaks up in flight, crashing at Graveley, near Welwyn. The 60 hp (45 kW) Anzani-powered aircraft had been taken on strength by the army in January 1912.

10 September

Lts. E. Hotchkiss and C. A. Bettington are killed when their Bristol-Coanda monoplane suffers a structural failure and crashes. This second accident involving a Royal Flying Corps monoplane in five days causes Col. Seely, Secretary of State for War, to issue a ban on monoplanes on 14 September. The ban will be reversed five months later when technical studies show that monoplanes are no more dangerous than biplanes.

28 September

Wright Model B, U.S. Army Signal Corps serial number 4, crashes at College Park Airport, Maryland, killing two crew, Lieutenant L.C. Rockwell and Corporal Frank S. Scott. On 20 July 1917, the Signal Corps Aviation School is named Rockwell Field in honor of 2nd Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell, killed in this crash, and Scott Field, Illinois is named for the first enlisted personnel killed in an aviation crash. Scott Air Force Base remains the only U.S. Air Force base named for an enlisted man.