Great Airplane Wrecked in Fog. Cross Continent Flyers Land Near Oconto With Bad Results for Their Machine. Neither Man Injured. (From The Oconto Register) This section of Custer county and more particularly the territory from Georgetown past Oconto and west has been dignified during the past week by the prescribe of many airplanes which were participating in the great coast to coast race The first one to be sighted near here was one which flew east about 6 o'clock last Thursday evening and sines that time Mg machines have been seen going in both iHroctiors at frequent intervals. The is ntel part of them however passed over or very near Oconto whMi is in direct line between St Paul and North Platte two of the control stations in Nebraska As many as a dozen of the big planes have flown over Oconto in a single7 day since the race was on but not until Monday morning did any of them stop At sunrise Monday morning Lieut. H. D. Norris of Washington, D.C. and Mechanic J. E. Meyer of Cleveland, Ohio left Omaha for the west driving a giant De Haviland plane "The Kitty Hawk". As they were crossing Redfern Table west of Oconto the fog became so thick that the pilot was unable to see his bourse and sought a landing place on the table However Lt. Norris allowed the plane to get into the hills off the edge of the table which necessitated a quick turn to avoid colliding with a hill As the big plane tilted sharply to make the sudden turn it struck the ground in a jepm field where the earth was soft and turned completely over breaking in two just back of the pilot's seat Lieut. Norris stated that just as the situation became critical one of the wings of the big flyer came over the mouth of a canyon and a sharp gust of wind helped to turn the plane over The accident occurred at the Geq 1 Mary farm 6 miles west of Oconto. The machine was practically a total wreck aside from its big 400 horse power liberty motor which was not damaged but there was nothing else about it worth saving arid' the greater part of the fuselage was harried away by visitors for souvenirs. The pilot and his mechanic escaped death by nothing short of a miracle and neither was injured to any extent. They took the matter philosophically and went about preparing the motor for shipment back1 to New York and left the balance of the wreck for the souvenir hunters The unfortunate machine was Now 87 in the official listings of the race. The wrecked plane was one of the famous DeHaviland “4’s" which made wonderful records during the war and was equipped with a 400 horse power twelve cylinder Liberty motor The gasoline tank had a capacity of 250 gallons and the machine was capable of tremendous speed The wings were between 40 and 50 feet from tip to tip and the engine and tail as long as an ordinary business building. The pilot and mechanic returned by train to the east from whence they began the trip and the "Kitty Hawk" was scrapped off the list of entrants in the Grant Patterson farm on Redfern Table and remained There until late in the afternoon when the fog lifted sufficiently to allow them to the big race. At about the same hour that the big DeHaviland was wrecked another machine of the same type No 88 made a landing successfully at proceed to North Platte. This machine was in charge of Lieut. F. W. Torney and Sergt. E. R. Yanstta was the mechanic Both of these aviators visited the wrecked No 87 and helped in attending to the disposition of it They wore serious expressions as they bhsrded their own machine for the trip to North Platte after viewing the possibilities of Lieut. Norris’ accident. Quite a number of other flyers who were passing over Monday and Tuesday experienced a great deal of trouble on account of the fog one of Oconto Tuesday afternoon end being them Now 22 having gotten lost near forced to make a landing. The pilot mistook the Loup River for the Platte and flew out his course thinking ha was too far south until he at last got righted and came to Oconto seeking a place to land He came down on the Harry Church farm three miles south of Oconto and then flew ir to town He remained all day Wednesday under orders from the control stations and “resumed the trip Thursday morning No 22 was a DeHaviland "Bluebird” and Umap wrecked near Cheyenne late Thursday afternoon the pilot being only slightly injured The Mg’ bunch of planes were distinct nqvslty for this or any other territory aside from the former war sreat and fly Ing f ild ani furnished a lot of entertainment for those in their path Since the return flifhte for the aViatota who hsveiuwLlhtirJlrit jmSglmag&f yJwu underway lots more of the flyers will be passing’ over for a week or more in all probability We expect next week to have a good picture of the plane which was wrecked as well as the others which made landings AearTiere for publication. Lieut. Norris and Mechanic Meyer brought the wrecked machine including the parts which it was at first thought would abandoned or burned to Oconto Friday and shipped it away.

• Lieutenant Howard Dutton Norris of Washington, D.C.
• Mechanic J. E. Meyer of Cleveland, Ohio

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