San Antonio, TX Flying School Airplanes Crash, Sept 1928

Airplanes Collide in Midair And Crash to Ground; One Dead

STUDENT AVIATOR SAVES HIMSELF AFTER LONG FALL

Cadet Makes Escape from Tangled Ships and Leaps To Safety

Companion Flier Fails to Use Parachute and Dies As Craft Hit

SAN ANTONIO, Tex,. Sept. 1. – (AP)- Cadet Gaynor Totevin crashed to his death and Cadet Sheldon C. Yoder jumped to safety with his parachute about nine o’clock this morning when their planes collided at an altitude of eight thousand feet, twenty miles west of here. Both are students of the advanced flying school at Kelly field.

IN MOCK COMBAT

The two cadets were engaged in combat maneuvers. Cadet Tostevin, piloting a pursuit plane, dived and crashed into the DeHaviland plane flown by Yoder.

Tostevin crashed with his plane, dying instantly. Yoder was uninjured in his leap.

Cadet Tostevin’s home was in Racine, Wis. Yoder’s home is in Almont, Mich.

The collision occurred when Tostevin led a formation of three pursuit planes in simulated attack against three observation planes. Yoder was flying the plane in the left rear of the observation formation.

MISJUDGED DISTANCE

The pursuit students were flying approximately two thousand feet above the observation squadron when Tostevin nosed his ship downward to dive on the latter formation. With his ship traveling at terrific speed, hi started to pull up but apparently misjudged his distance and pulled his ship directly under and into the landing gear of the DeHaviland.

Cadet Yoder was shocked and covered with oil from the damaged motors. He climbed out of the cockpit to jump clear of the ships, which stuck together and started down in a spin, but toppled over head foremost into the rear cockpit.

FALLS 1500 FEET

Dispite the difficulty he had in jumping, other pilots who circled the falling planes, estimated that the sips had not fallen more than 1500 before his parachute opened.

The two ships continued to the earth locked together and did not burn, according to reports from Kelly Field.

The body of Tostevin was found about two hundred yards from the wreckage and Yoder landed approximately the same distance from where the ships fell.

Reno Gazette, Reno, NV 14 Sept 1928
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Transcribed by Regina. Thanks Regina!