San Diego, CA Homemade Plane Crashes, Mar 1928

FIVE ARE DEAD AS HOME MADE PLANE CRASHES.

San Diego, Cal., March 5 -- Five men were killed Sunday afternoon when the home made experimental monoplane in which they were traveling nose dived 300 feet to the earth at Bernett flying field to avoid a midair smash with a big passenger plane landing at the same time.
The dead are W. W. BIRD, pilot and builder of the plane, Point Loma.
RALPH CRAIG, Coronado.
CHESTER H. KIDWELL, Ocean Beach.
CLIFFORD DILL, Coronado.
IRVING THOMAS, address unknown.
The pilot and his four passengers were thrown against the engine which telescoped through the framework as the plane crashed. All but one of the men were dead when taken from the wreckage.
Witnesses said BIRD apparently swung away from the field to give room to the passenger plane which had the right of way in landing. As the BIRD plane swung, its nose suddenly tipped forward and the plane half turned as it shot earthward.
BIRD'S passengers were recruited from among the men around the field.
The passengers were warned by attaches of the Mahoney Airport that BIRD had been refused a pilot's license from the city air control board on the ground of inexperience and that the plane had been "grounded" or ordered not to fly by the same commission.

Evening Independent Massillon Ohio 1928-03-05
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!