MID-AIR COLLISION!
The Comet Express Collides with the Milky Way Ærostatic Express.
Twenty-five Passengers Dashed to Earth.
Many Saved in the Descent by Using the Air-Life Preservers.
Manhattan, N. Y., 2 p. m., July 17, 1984.—A mid-air collision resulting in the death of twenty-five persons, and injuries to many others, occurred at 11 o’clock this morning at a distance of 2,500 feet over the city of Binghamton, N. Y.
The Transcontinental Comet Express, San Francisco to the eastern coast, which passes Denver at 10 p. m., takes its easterly flight and passes over Binghamton about 11 o’clock on the following day. The west bound Milky Way Express is due over Binghamton at about the same hour.
A heavy fog arising from the Susquehanna prevailed at the time and this, added to the fact that a propeller-blade of the Comet Express was disabled, caused the collision, which collapsed the ærodrome of the Milky Way, capsizing twenty-five of the passengers, many of whom fell in the Court House green, being buried in the sod under the terrific velocity of the fall. One passenger from Cobleskill, who had just started for a trip to the Yellowstone Park, fell on the statue of Justice on the dome of the Court House. At noon his legs had not yet been extricated. The city is plunged in gloom. Among the killed were five passengers from Sidney, Unadilla and Bainbridge. The details of their death are too shocking for recital. The bodies were taken to the Binghamton crematory and burned. The ashes will be forwarded to-morrow to the relatives.
On the Comet Express from San Francisco, the passengers were more fortunate. The navigator calmed the fears of the passengers, many of whom were ready to jump overboard and take a short cut into Binghamton, frenzied as they were through fear. Those who jumped were careful to adjust the air life preservers before leaping. The Comet Express passengers landed in Binghamton safely.
Gen. Burgess had both legs so badly broken that they will have to be amputated. The surgeons will supply new electrical limbs that will prove fully as serviceable as the natural ones.
Terrible accidents like the one above described, taken from the columns of the Hourly Journal, under date of July 17, 1984, were not by any means the only class of accidents caused in the twentieth century by ærial navigation. Under the influences of sighing breezes, an invigorating atmosphere and a mild, genial sun, nothing could be more delightful than a mid-air excursion on board of an ærodrome. Nothing could exceed the pleasant sensations one experiences while noiselessly gliding over tree-tops and church spires.
In 1999 courtships were no longer conducted in the locality of the much abused garden gate. Love’s trysting-place was often transferred to the roof of the paternal house, where the coy damsel frequently awaited with anxious heart for the arrival of her lover on an airship.
But, with all its bright attractions, ærial navigation had dangers of its own, obstacles and difficulties. Here we have another illustration of the perils of ærial navigation. We copy the following article from the columns of the Sidney Record, under date of Jan. 15, 1999, which goes to prove that ærodromes, like all mortals here below, had troubles of their own: