Two British Airmen Dashed To Death.

New York Times 100 years ago today, December 16, 1912:
Lieut. Parke of Navy and Aeronautical Manager Killed in Monoplane.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Dec. 15.— Lieut. Wilfred Parke of the royal navy, one of the best-known British airmen, and Arkell Hardwick, manager of the Handley-Page Aeronautical Company, were killed this morning while attempting a flight from Hendon to Oxford in a Handley-Page monoplane, the wings of which were set back, like those of pigeons, to increase its stability.
    The engine appeared to be failing when the aeroplane approached the Wembley golf links. Lieut. Parke, who was piloting the machine, attempted to land on the links, and got within a short distance of the ground when he found himself confronted by a line of trees. He was trying to steer around the obstacle when the monoplane dropped suddenly to the ground. A loud explosion followed.
    Lieut. Parke was killed instantly. His head, though protected by a helmet, was crushed. Hardwick, one of whose legs was almost cut off and whose back was broken, lived twenty minutes after the accident.
    About sixty golfers were on the links. They rushed toward the machine, which was a mass of wreckage. Strapped to the seats were the two men, with their heads hanging down. The golfers failed at first to extricate them and tilted the machine over on its side. Then they were able to get the airmen clear and place them on the grass.
    One of the caddies, who was looking for lost balls within three yards of the place where the monoplane fell, said: "I heard a buzzing noise and saw the aeroplane right above my head. I did not think it was coming down, and I stood still and stared. I could see the man in front working at something with his hands, but could not see his face. Then I suddenly saw the machine begin to drop quickly, and I ran away, only just in time, for it fell where I had been standing."
    Parke, who was 24 years old, was the hero of a wonderful escape on Aug. 26 on Salisbury Plain, when his biplane dived vertically from a height of 700 feet and righted only when it was sixty feet from the ground. Hardwick, who was 35 years old, had escaped death so often that he used to remark that he was too lucky to be killed in an aeroplane.