Warwick, Rhode Island – July 26, 1928

    On the evening of July 26, 1928, well known Connecticut aviator, Osmond H. Mather, took off from the Buttonwoods Airfield in Warwick, Rhode Island, in a small black and orange mono-coupe airplane.  With him as a passenger was Clifton H. Thompson, of Foxboro, Massachusetts.  The purpose of the flight was to demonstrate to Mr. Thompson the plane’s capabilities as Thompson was considering buying the plane for use at the newly opened Providence Airport in Seekonk, Massachusetts.  

     About one hundred people on the ground watched as the aircraft went through a series of maneuvers, among them was Thompson’s wife and daughter.  At one point while the aircraft was only 100 feet from the ground, it suddenly went into a dive before it crashed and exploded about 200 yards from the edge of the flying field.  Both occupants were killed instantly. 

     Osmond Mather was a well known pilot in the New England area,   and a World War I veteran who’d served in the Air Corps.   About five months before his death, he flew over the home of Connecticut’s Governor, John Trumbull, and dropped a box containing a miniature reproduction of Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis”.  The gif was in honor of the Governor’s 55th birthday. 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/132372604/osmond-m-mather

     Clifton Thompson was also a World War I veteran having served in the Air Corps.  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/175077080/clifton-badlam-thompson

Sources:

     New Britain Herald, “Osmond H. Mather Dies In Airplane”, July 27, 1928, p.4.

     New Britain Herald, “Gift From Sky Dropped On Gov. Trumbull’s Lawn”, March 5, 1928, p.1.