Bomber Crash

Officers of McCook Field, Dayton, forgot their triumph in adding endurance to their list of speed, climb and altitude records, on seeing the fatal crash of a heavily loaded Martin bomber. Their guests of a few weeks, Captain W. B. Lawson and Sergeant Bidwell, of Langley Field, Va., Sergeant W. H. Rowland, of Selfridge Field, Mich., and Hugh M. Smith, of the Bureau of Standards, left McCook on a flight to Langley. In the face of a head wind, Captain Lawson--a distinguished war pilot-- could not clear a bridge across the Miami at the edge of the field, and a sharp turn, though well advised under the circumstances, resulted in an almost vertical nose-dive into the river with the instantaneous death of these four men and serious injury to a fifth.