Detroit, MI Transport Plane Crashes, May 1928

TWO FORD PILOTS KILLED.

MACHINE FALLS AND TAKES FIRE NEAR AIRPORT.

VICTIMS WERE ON THEIR FIRST REGULAR RUN TO BUFFALO, N.Y. ON FREIGHT ROUTE.

BAD TAKE-OFF IS BLAMED FOR TRAGEDY.

PLANE FORCED OFF GROUND WITHOUT SUFFICIENT FLYING SPEED, STALLING THE MOTOR IN AIR.

Detroit, Mich. May 12. -- (AP) -- Two pilots of the Ford Motor Co. were killed today when a tri-motored transport plane crashed and caught fire soon after taking off from the Ford airport at 8:45 a.m.
The men killed were:
WILLIAM MUNN, of Detroit.
E. K. PARKER, of Detroit.
The pilots were on their first regular run to Buffalo, N.Y., on a freight route.
Edward G. Hamilton, chief of operations of the Ford air line service, said the accident occurred when MUNN, who was at the controls forced the plane off the ground without sufficient flying speed.
Soon after rising the big airship stalled, slid off on one wing and spun to the ground near the Michigan Central Railroad tracks close to the airport. The plane was wrecked and both men are believed to have died almost instantly.
MUNN, formerly was a test pilot for the Hess Aircraft company, of Wyandotte, a suburb. PARKER, formerly resided at Denver, Colo. Both were married and both only recently had become pilots of the Ford air line service.
The plane, an all metal air ship, carried a load of freight. When it crashed a broken wing punctured the gasoline tank and the fuel was ignited. It was more than an hour after the accident before the bodies of the victims, both burned, could be recovered from the wreckage.
The fatalities were the first involving one of the Ford tri-motors and it was the third serious airplane accident in the vicinity of the Ford airport. Two other men, Gordon A. Taylor, of Rochester, and Aaron ROsenblett, New York City, were killed on April 24, when their plane, a Taylor monoplane, crashed from an altitude of 1000 feet at the airport during a demonstration following the aircraft show. Three persons were hurt in another crash at the airport April 23.

Cumberland Evening Times Maryland 1928-05-12
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!