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4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JANUARY 10, 2018 O PINION Offbeat Oregon History: 1933 a rough year for aviators PHOTO COURTESY FINN JD JOHN A Ford Trimotor parked on an airfi eld at Langley Research Center in 1934. (Image: NASA) By Finn JD John For The Sentinel C ommercial air travel has become so safe and so banal — especially for the poor fi sh packed into the “coach” seating — that it’s some- times easy to forget what a new experience fl ying is, historically speaking. That was not the case in the year 1933, though. That was the year that saw Oregon’s fi rst two fa- tal commercial passenger airplane crashes: one in January, and another in November. There was no National Transportation Safety Board in 1933, and no Federal Aviation Adminis- tration. So the stories of these early plane crashes have to be taken directly from newspaper reports. Luckily, they’re fairly complete. Ford Tri-Motor crash, Eugene In January 1933, the closest thing to an “airlin- er” one could step aboard was the Ford Tri-motor, a large spindly-looking machine that looked a bit like a giant cricket built out of roofi ng tin. It had been introduced in 1926 and had an enviable rep- utation for ruggedness and dependability; the fi rst overfl ight of the South Pole was done in a Tri-mo- tor with skis in place of landing gear. One great advantage of the Tri-motor was that, with three engines pulling it through the air, there were only one or two possible circumstances in which losing an engine would cause it to crash. But unfortunately, as they prepared their big air- plane for takeoff on the afternoon of Jan. 24, Unit- ed Air Lines pilot Harold Adams, copilot Kenneth Houseolder, and stewardess Cornelia Pederman were about to fi nd out the hard way what one of those circumstances was. The three of them had taken off from Swan Is- land Airfi eld in Portland at 10:15 a.m. that morn- ing on a regularly scheduled fl ight southward — probably to Medford, although the newspapers don’t specify. The weather was iffy, with a very low cloud cover, and all the passengers who had been booked for the fl ight had had their tickets canceled; but there was still the mail to deliver, so the fl ight went on as scheduled. But by the time the airplane got to Eugene, the ceiling had dropped so low that Adams wasn’t willing to risk going farther south. So he dropped into the Eugene airport and had the mail trans- ferred to a southbound train. Then he taxied the heavy airplane back to the runway, fed the en- gines fuel, and started the takeoff run. And it appears the right-hand engine failed just as the plane was lifting off the runway. The big craft veered sharply, hit a runway light, wobbled slowly into the air — and was swatted out of the sky by a telegraph pole. It pancaked down onto a vacant house, which was knocked six feet off its foundation and collapsed under the impact. This probably saved stewardess Pederman’s life; she survived the crash with just a broken ankle. Adams and Houseolder weren’t so lucky. Both were rushed to the hospital, but soon died of their injuries. In Adams, particularly, Oregon aviation lost a real treasure. A native of Myrtle Point, Adams was an old Army pilot, having learned to fl y in France in 1918; after the war, he made a living for a time as one of those classic “Barnstormer” stunt fl yers, making his way from town to town • (541) 942-3325 Administration James Rand, Regional Publisher Gary Manly, General Manager ................................................. Ext. 207 gmanly@cgsentinel.com • Aaron Ames, Marketing Specialist ........................................... Ext. 216 aames@cgsentinel.com Jana Stelle, Marketing Specialist .............................................. Ext. 203 jsteele@cgsentinel.com • Editorial Caitlyn May, Editor. ................................................................. Ext. 212 cmay@cgsentinel.com Zach Silva, Sport Editor ............................................................ Ext. 204 zsilva@cgsentinel.com Customer Service Mandi Jacobs, Offi ce Manager ................................................ Ext. 200 Legals, Classifi eds .......................................... Ext. 200 mjacobs@cgsentinel.com • Cascade Christian School 5th grade students are doing a project on the state of Oregon and ask that resi- dents send postcards, pictures, bro- chures, used license plates or any other informational material about the state to 601 SE 9th Ave. Puyal- lup, WA 98372. Repairs to Gateway Blvd. begin this week at the Row River inter- section. For more information on daily road conditions, visit cottage- grove.org. The special election for Ballot Measure 101 is set for Jan. 23. Reg- istered voters should have received their ballots in the mail. If you be- lieve you should have received a ballot and have not, please contact the county clerk's offi ce at (541) 682-4234. Team Cottage Grove will meet on Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Healing Ma- • (USP 133880) Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties: Ten Weeks..............................................................................................$9.50 One year ............................................................................................. $37.65 e-Edition year ...................................................................................... $35.00 Rates in all other areas of United States: Ten Weeks $11.70; one year, $46.35, e-Edition $43.00. In foreign countries, postage extra. No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable. Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Local Mail Service: If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know. Call 942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Advertising Ownership: All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and may not be reproduced for any other use without explicit written prior approval. Copyright Notice: Entire contents ©2017 Cottage Grove Sentinel. The interior of a Ford Trimotor as seen from the view- point of a passenger. • • trix. Buster's Main St. Cafe will have complimentary meals for veterans and active duty personnel on Jan. 11 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. State Representative Cedric Hayden will speak at the next meeting of the Cottage Grove 912 Project on Monday, Jan. 15, 6:30 p.m., at Stacy's Covered Bridge Restaurant, 401 E Main. Heath- er Buch, candidate for Lane Co Commissioner will also speak. The meeting is open to the public. Volunteers are needed for United Way to provide companionship, transportation for shopping and er- rands, correspondence, reading and respite care to home bound, elderly clients. Training and on-going sup- port provided. Contact Clarence at 541-517-6396 or ctownsend@ lcog.org. Production Ron Annis, Production Supervisor ............................................. Ext.215 graphics@cgsentinel.com power to the engines so that in the crash they would not ignite the fuel tanks. The plane hit the hillside before Woodworth could reach the switch. It must have been an unusually fortunate strike, because the majority of people on the airplane survived. The cockpit was demolished, and Da- vis was instantly killed; but somehow Woodworth was thrown clear through a hole torn in the hull, injuring him but saving his life in the process. Back in the passenger cabin, the three passen- gers on the left-hand side were in the most trou- ble, as the wing had hit a tree and come through the side of the plane. Among these three was Rob- ert C. Coffey, M.D., director of the Coffey Clinic in Portland and a world-famous cancer specialist, who was apparently killed instantly; his death was reported in newspapers nationwide and in Time Magazine. Two other passengers on the left side of the plane also died — either from the impact, or from the fi re that quickly broke out. Stewardess Libby Wurgaft quickly got the door open and started hustling the stunned survivors out before the fl ames could reach them. She had to go back into the burning plane four times be- fore everyone who could be saved was out. Then the survivors had to fi gure out what to do next. They had crashed in the middle of what is now Forest Park, a long way from anyone. The survivors kindled a fi re with the help of some papers one of them had in his pocket, and huddled around it while the two of them who could walk — copilot Woodwarth and Medford resident Floyd Hart — stumbled off in search of help. They fi nally found a camp of woodcutters, who directed them to a telephone; but it wasn’t until 4 a.m. that the survivors were safely rescued. Ironically, the medical facility to which they were taken was the Robert C. Coffey Clinic and Hospital. IN BRIEF JAN. 10-JAN.16 C ottage G rove S entinel with his trusty plane (probably a Curtiss JN-4) and performing aerobatics, wing-walking stunts, and similar daredeviltries. For a time he ran a fl y- ing school in Roseburg. He was hired by United Air Lines in 1931, and quickly forged a reputa- tion as one of the operation’s most careful and trustworthy pilots. Copilot Houseolder, a 25-year- old Eugene native, doubtless considered himself lucky to be fl ying with him. Boeing 247 crash, Portland Just 10 months later, the airline business had changed a great deal. For one thing, the old, slow Ford Trimotors had been replaced at United Air- lines by a new generation of sleek, silver aircraft that actually looked like airliners, albeit tiny ones. The fi rst of these was built by United Air Lines’ sister company, Boeing, up in Seattle; it was called the Boeing 247, and it had two engines and carried up to 10 passengers at speeds of 200 miles an hour, which was faster than top-line fi ghter planes could go. It was also capable of instrument fl ight and night fl ight. Both of these were involved in what happened shortly after takeoff at 10:50 p.m. on the cold, foggy night of Nov. 9. The airplane was going to The Dalles, lined up on the runway to take off into the teeth of the usu- al wintertime wind that comes up from the south. But as it reached the midpoint, just as the tail wheel lifted off the turf, the big bird did a partial ground-loop. A ground-loop is a hazard that many tail-drag- ging airplanes are particularly vulnerable to; it’s the same dynamic that makes badly loaded trail- ers start pitching and swaying from side to side. It happens because the center of gravity is behind the wheels, and if that center of gravity happens to move far enough to one side of the wheels it tries to pass them, spinning the aircraft around. This can cause serious damage. In this case, though, pilot Al Davis apparently caught it in time, swinging the tail of the plane safely back behind the wheels and continuing the takeoff run. But the maneuver caused the plane to swerve off the edge of the runway. It shot across another runway, through a parking lot and out over the Willamette River, which it very nearly fell into; but instead, the engines roaring at full power, it slowly climbed off the river and gained altitude. And this is the point at which pilot Al Davis, a Seattle native, made his real mistake. He appar- ently did not look at the compass. Assuming that the rough take-off had been more or less a normal one (remember, this was in heavy fog) he carried on climbing to altitude, assuming he was fl ying south, actually fl ying due west. The fi rst sign of trouble came when it was too late to do anything. Copilot H.B. Woodworth, an Oakland native, saw treetops looming out of the fog. “Look out for the trees!” he shouted. Pilot Davis, who was focusing on the instru- ments, looked up, tried to bank away, saw it was no use, and shouted, “Cut!” — meaning to cut Letters to the Editor policy In order to ensure that your letter will be printed, letters must be under 300 words and submitted by Friday at 5 p.m. Letters must be signed and must include an address, city and phone number or e-mail address for verifi cation purposes. No anonymous letters will be printed. Letters must be of interest to local readers. Personal attacks and name calling in response to letters are uncalled for and unnecessary. To avoid transcription errors, the Sentinel would prefer editorial and news content be sent electronically via email or electronic media. Hand written submissions will be accepted, but we may need to call to verify spelling, which could delay the publishing of the submission. The Sentinel reserves the right not to print letters that may contain libelous content. • Each January, the one-night Point in Time Count takes place across the nation. As a volunteer, you collect the important data that pro- vides a snapshot of the problem of homelessness. This valuable data helps policymakers target resourc- es to the areas of the state experi- encing the greatest need. For more information visit lanecounty.org/ homelesscount or email Alexan- dria.Dreher@co.lane.or.us. • The Eugene Symphony Guild's Af- ternoon Tea Saturday, Jan. 20 at the Eugene Country Club, 255 Country Club Drive. 1 p.m. for social and 1:30 pm for tea with petite sand- wiches and desserts. $40. Reser- vations by Jan. 17 to Betsy, (541) 434-9188. Have an event, announcement or meeting? Email details to cmay@ cgsentinel.com.
