List of Accidents and Incidents Involving Military Aircraft Before 1925 - 1916

1916

9 June

Lt.j.g. Richard Caswell Saufley of the U.S. Navy, designated Naval Aviator No. 14, is killed in the crash of a Curtiss Model E hydro-plane (seaplane), AH-8, over Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola, Florida at the 8 hr., 51 min. mark of an attempted long-duration flight. Saufley Field, north of NAS Pensacola, is subsequently named for him.

18 June

German ace Max Immelmann (17 victories) is killed at ~2215 hrs. when his Fokker E.III monoplane, 246-16, crashes after breaking up in the air when the interrupter gear malfunctions and he shoots away his own propeller. He had been engaging an F.E.2b piloted by 2nd Lt. G. R. Gubbin with Cpl. J. H. Waller as gunner. Gubbin and Waller were credited with the victory, but another theory posits that Immelmann may have taken hits from friendly AAA, as the propeller failure would not necessarily have caused the complete airframe disintegration that occurred.

Afternoon of 27 June

Fokker's chief designer and test pilot Martin Kreutzer takes a Fokker D.I for test flight, but when he kicks rudder hard over, it jams and he is severely injured in subsequent crash, dying in hospital the next day.

3 September

Imperial German Army Zeppelin LZ86, LZ56, crashed when the fore and aft nacelles broke away from the ship's hull after a raid.

Night of 6 September

The Roland (Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft mbH, or LFG) Adlershof, Berlin, Germany, aircraft plant burns, destroying seven complete aircraft, including the prototype LFG Roland C.III (and only one built), as well as ten fuselages. Assembly jigs and fixtures, models and some drawings are salvaged and production resumes a week later in commandeered Automobile Exhibition Hall.

16 September

Two Imperial German Navy Zeppelins destroyed when L 6, LZ31, took fire during refilling of gas in its hangar at Fuhlsbüttel and burnt down together with L 9, LZ36.

21 September

One only prototype Avro 521 fighter, 1811, (a serial that duplicated one assigned to a Bleriot monoplane), assigned to Central Flying School Upavon, crashes killing pilot Lt. W. H. S. Garnett.

26 September

Flying ace Leutnant Max Ritter von Mulzer (ten aerial victories credited), the first Bavarian fighter ace, first Bavarian ace recipient of the Pour le Merite, and first Bavarian knighted for his exploits, on this date sideslips Albatros D.I 426/16 into a hard bank, loses control, and crashes at Armee Flug Park 6, Valenciennes, with fatal result.

28 October

Undercarriage of German fighter pilot Erwin Böhme, diving on a British fighter, strikes upper wing of ace Oswald Boelcke's Albatros D.II, also pursuing the same target. Fabric peels loose, aircraft disappears into cloud - when it emerges, the top wing is gone. Boelcke makes relatively "soft" landing, but as he habitually flew without a helmet, and in haste to take off had not properly secured his seatbelt, he was killed on impact. He was 25, and was credited with 40 victories. Jasta 2 is officially named "Jasta Boelcke" on 17 December 1916 in honour of its former commander.

7 November

Imperial German Army Zeppelin LZ90, LZ60, broke loose in the direction of the North Sea in a storm and never seen again.

8 November

Lieutenant Clarence K. Bronson, Naval Aviator No. 15, and Lieutenant Luther Welsh, on an experimental bomb test flight at Naval Proving Ground, Indian Head, Maryland, were instantly killed by the premature explosion of a bomb in their plane.

13 November

Sole prototype of the Zeppelin-Lindau (Dornier) V1, a single-seat, all-metal fighter with pod-type fuselage and pusher 160 hp (120 kW) Maybach Mb III engine, designed by Dipl-Ing Claudius Dornier, and built by the Abteilung 'Dornier' of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH at Seemoos, near Friedrichshafen, attempts initial flight. After a series of ground hops in September by Bruno E. Schröter, this pilot refused to fly the prototype due to pronounced tail-heaviness. Oblt. Haller von Hallerstein, instead undertakes initial flight this date, but the V1 performs a loop immediately after take-off, crashing, killing pilot. No further development undertaken of the type.

12 December

Sole prototype of Kishi No.2 Tsurugi-go ("Sword" type) Aeroplane, 'II', single-engine pusher biplane, makes first and last flight when Lt. Inoue lifts off, immediately banks sharply to port, wingtip contacts ground, airframe cartwheels sustaining considerable damage. Cause of accident assumed to be due to the sweptback wing design.

28 December

Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ69 L 24, crashed into a wall while being "stabled", broke its back, and burned out together with L 17, LZ53.

29 December

Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ84 L 38, damaged beyond repair in a forced landing (due to heavy snowfall) during an attempted raid on Reval and Saint Petersburg.