All aviation ceased with the accident, and a pall of gloom and sadness has descended over the village.
An airplane piloted by Lincoln Beachey, known for daring verging on recklessness, dipped over a shed in Bath, N.Y. It was too low, and four young spectators were swept from the shed's roof. One of them, Ruth Hildreth, died and the others were badly injured. Beachey himself was hurt when the airplane crashed moments later.
It was front-page news in The Gazette, and deservedly so. What's remarkable, however, is the newspaper's treatment of another aviation story, less gory but far more important.
On Oct. 8, 1913, an airplane took off from Montreal and flew to Ottawa. It was trumpeted as the first cross-country flight in Canada, and the first to carry a commercial cargo in this country. But not a word on this landmark feat appeared in The Gazette, either that day or the next.
The reason? The flight was a stunt sponsored by a brandnew Montreal newspaper, the Daily Mail, to mark its debut, and The Gazette had no wish to give publicity to the upstart - no matter how big a story it meant ignoring.
The Daily Mail's airplane was piloted by a young American, Billy Robinson, and he had intended taking off early that Wednesday morning. But when he arrived at the field near Snowdon Junction, at the corner of Décarie Blvd. and Queen Mary Rd., he was dismayed to discover his biplane had been damaged while being shipped from Chicago to Montreal.
The repairs took so much time that Robinson had to cancel his plan to circle over Fletcher's Field before heading west to Ottawa.
Robinson's cargo, naturally enough, would be a bundle of the Daily Mail's inaugural edition. Copies were to be delivered to Prime Minister Robert Borden, Opposition leader Wilfrid Laurier, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Charles Fitzpatrick and mayor James Ellis of Ottawa.
On hand for the takeoff, which finally came about 10 a.m., was Ellis's Montreal counterpart, Louis-Arsène Lavallée. "This event marks a new era in the development and prosperity of our good city," Lavallée said - before addressing the pilot directly, and a little ominously: "I hope your life will be spared."
It almost wasn't. While taking off, the airplane hit a bump and nearly tipped over, before barely clearing a fence at the end of the field. Then, shortly after gaining his cruising altitude of 1,500 feet, Robinson saw that a gasoline line was leaking. He was able to land in Lachine before the fuel touched anything hot and ignited.
While the leak was being fixed, a local farmer thrust some apples and pears on Robinson. A passing motorist named Léo Fortin offered the pilot all the money he had with him if only he'd be taken on as a passenger. Robinson had to refuse, but left him with a copy of the Daily Mail as a souvenir.
Not long after, the insouciant Robinson felt a little peckish and touched down at Ste. Anne de Bellevue. A woman there came up with four chicken sandwiches, which he declared were excellent.
He followed the Ottawa River and then the Canadian Pacific main line, once almost losing his way when the tracks went off in three directions. There were fuel stops at Choisy, near Hudson, then at the resort of Caledonia Springs, Ont. (where Robinson enjoyed a glass of the famous mineral water), and finally at Leonard Station, east of Ottawa. Long strips of muslin laid on the ground in the form of a cross showed him where to land.
Mayor Ellis was waiting at Lansdowne Park to welcome Robinson to the capital, but when the pilot saw how many people were milling about, he landed on a field in the eastern part of the city instead. Even then, it was an adventure.
"There was a horse in the field. . The animal ran in front of me, and I had to raise one wing and make a very sharp turn to miss striking it," Robinson said. "In the other fields where I descended there were cattle, but I had no trouble with them."
From takeoff to final landing took about seven hours, though his actual time in the air was just under three hours. Today, a motorist covers the same route in less.
Robinson died on March 11, 1916, when he crashed near Grinnell, Iowa, while trying to set an altitude record. The Montreal Daily Mail survived until Aug. 31 the following year, when it published its final issue.
