Harrisville, New Hampshire – September 7, 1939
On September 7, 1939, a Stimson airplane crashed in the woods of Harrisville, New Hampshire, killing the pilot George A. Thorne Jr., 37, of Chicago. The subsequent fire burned several acres of woodland. Investigators were unable to determine the cause of the crash.
Thorne had been a member of the Admiral Byrd Expedition to the Antarctic in 1929, where he served as a surveyor and dog-team driver. He had hoped to accompany Byrd on another expedition in the not too distant future.
Source: New York Times, “G.A. Thorne Jr. Dies In Airplane Crash”, September 8, 1939