List of Accidents and Incidents Involving Military Aircraft Before 1925 - 1918

1918

Early 1918

Sole prototype of the Curtiss CB (Curtiss Battleplane), unofficially known as the "Liberty Battler", 34632, an experimental two-seat fighter developed and flown early in this year as a result of difficulties being experienced with the Liberty-engined version of the Bristol F2B, proves to have extremely poor handling characteristics and subsequently crashes early in its test programme. Three additional airframes, 34633-34635, cancelled.

5 January

Imperial German Navy Zeppelin, L 47, LZ87, destroyed by a giant explosion at the air base in Ahlhorn, along with L 46, LZ94, L 51, LZ97, and L 58, LZ105, and one non-Zeppelin-type airship, stabled in three adjacent hangars. This is supposed to have been an accident, though sabotage could not be ruled out.

7 February

During U.S. Navy tests of a converted Curtiss N-9 biplane as an unpiloted flying bomb, equipped with a Sperry automatic control, Lawrence Sperry takes it up to prove airworthiness of the design, crashes, but pilot unhurt.

10 March

Sole prototype Nieuport B.N.1, C3484, operating out of Sutton's Farm, a home aerodrome, Great Britain, catches fire in the air and is destroyed. No further development undertaken.

28 March

Sole prototype of the Breguet LE (Laboratoire Eiffel), a single-seat fighter monoplane, crashes on its second flight, out of Villacoublay, France, when it dives into the ground at full-throttle, killing pilot Jean Sauclière. Further development suspended.

4 April

Royal Flying Corps SPAD 12, S.449/B6877, equipped with engine No. 9253, crashes during flight from Martlesham Heath to the Isle of Grain. Records do not indicate any attempts to repair or replace the sole example of this model received by the RFC.

9 May

U.S. Army Maj. Harold Melville Clark accomplishes first three-island flight in the Hawaiian Islands when he and mechanic Sgt. Robert Gray depart from Fort Kamehameha in a Curtiss N-9 of the 6th Aero Squadron, make a stop in Maui, and then continue to the island of Hawaii. Clark encounters fog and darkness over the island, causing him to crash in the jungle near Hilo. Two days after the crash, Clark and Gray emerge from the Hawaiian jungle unhurt. According to Harold Richards in "The History of Army Aviation in Hawaii", Clark accomplished another "first" on this flight as he had agreed to deliver two letters from Oahu residents to their relatives on Hawaii. After emerging from the jungle, Clark delivers the letters to their intended recipients. Thus, Clark carried the first letters by airmail in the Hawaiian Islands.

19 May

First prototype Sopwith Salamander, E5429, crashes during test program while with No. 65 Squadron when the pilot has to avoid a tender crossing the aerodrome responding to another crash.

3 June

One Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, a four-engined German biplane strategic bomber, modified as a float-equipped seaplane for the Marine-Fliegerabteilung (Imperial German Naval Air Service), with the designation Type L, serial 1432, using Maybach engines, first flown on 5 September 1917, crashes during testing on this date.

8 June

First prototype Handley Page V/1500 bomber, E4104, powered by tandem pairs of Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, first flown on 22 May 1918, crashes on thirteenth flight while piloted by Capt. Vernon E. G. Busby when all four engines quit at 1,000 feet altitude (300 m), possibly due to fuel starvation. Pilot attempts turn back to airfield but stalls and spins in. Four riding in the forward fuselage are killed on impact, two in rear rescued before airframe is consumed by fire, but one dies later of injuries. As aircraft was destroyed by post-crash fire, no determination could be made of cause of accident. Although two V/1500s of 166 Squadron are ready for a mission on 8 November 1918, bad weather cancels raid, and with the armistice signed on 11 November 1918 the type never flies operationally.

19 June

Lt. Frank Stuart Patterson, son and nephew of the co-founders of National Cash Register, is killed in the crash of his DH.4M, AS-32098, at Wilbur Wright Field during a flight test of a new mechanism for synchronizing machine gun and propeller, when a tie rod breaks during a dive from 15,000 feet (4,600 m), causing the wings to separate from the aircraft. Wishing to recognize the contributions of the Patterson family (owners of NCR) the area of Wright Field east of Huffman Dam (including Wilbur Wright Field, Fairfield Air Depot, and the Huffman Prairie) is renamed Patterson Field on 6 July 1931, in honor of Lt. Patterson.

9 July

The fourth-highest-scoring British ace of the Great War, Maj. James Thomas Byford McCudden, is killed when he side-slips into the ground while trying to return to the airfield at Auxi-le-Château after the engine of his S.E.5a cuts out. McCudden had taken off to fly to his new command, No. 60 Squadron RAF. He had 57 aerial victories.

Between 27 July and 1 August

Third prototype Sopwith Salamander, E5431, crashes in France before a newly-applied disruptive camouflage scheme can be evaluated.

28 July

Royal Air Force Sopwith Dolphin E4449 flown by Tone Bayetto crashed in Hampshire, England when the wings folded back and it dived into the ground from 200 feet.

10 August

Lt. Erich Loewenhardt, third-highest-scoring German ace of the Great War, is KWF when the wheels of a Fokker D.VII flown by Lt. Alfred Wentz of Jasta 11 (also spelt Wenz in some sources) collide with the wing of his own Fokker D.VII, causing it to crash. He bails out but his chute fails to open. Lowenhardt, posted to JG.1, and flying with Jasta 10 from July 1917, scored 53 victories before his death. Wentz successfully bails out of his stricken fighter.

13 August

Jarvis Jennes Offutt (1894–1918), becomes the first fatality among natives of Omaha, Nebraska in World War I, when his S.E.5 crashed during a training flight near Valheureux, France, and succumbs to his injuries. The Flying Field, Fort George Crook, Nebraska renamed Offutt Field, 6 May 1924.

16 August

Royal Navy Air Service airship, R27, destroyed in a hangar fire at RNAS Howden along with a makeshift SSZ class blimp and two SSZ class blimps, SSZ.38 and SSZ.54. One airman dies.

19 August

First of three crashes of new Fokker E.V. (Eindekker V, or monoplane five), six of which are delivered to Jasta 6 of the Imperial German Air Service on 7 August, to occur in a week, kills Leutnant Emil Rolff when wing fails, and, like the Fokker Triplane before it, the type is grounded for investigation. Problem traced to shoddy workmanship at the Mecklenburg factory where defective wood spars, water damage to glued parts, and pins carelessly splintering the members instead of securing them are discovered. Upon return to service two months later, design is renamed the Fokker D.VIII in an effort to distance type's reputation as a killer. Rolff had scored the first kill in the type on 17 August.

24 August

U.S Army Maj. William R. Ream becomes the first flight surgeon to die in an aircraft accident, at the Effingham, Illinois airport, out of Chanute Field, Illinois, when his aircraft stalls/spins and crashes.

11 September

Third prototype Vickers Vimy, B9954, crashes during testing - stalls on takeoff with full load at Martlesham Heath, bomb load explodes, pilot killed.

25 September

Chief Machinist's Mate Francis E. Ormsbee went to the rescue of two men in a plane which had crashed in Pensacola Bay, Florida. He pulled out the gunner and held him above water until help arrived, then made repeated dives into the wreckage in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the pilot. For his heroism, Chief Ormsbee was awarded the Medal of Honor.