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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

100 years ago in Spokane: Pilot suffers only minor injures after plane tumbles 200 feet in crash at Felts Field

Spokane aviator Delbert (Deb) Wylie fell 200 feet and crashed while making an exhibition flight at Parkwater air field, The Spokesman-Review reported on May 21, 1917. (Spokesman-Review archives)

Spokane aviator Delbert (Deb) Wylie fell 200 feet and crashed while making an exhibition flight at Parkwater air field (now Felts Field).

Wylie had just taken off and had gone up about 200 feet when the engine, newly installed in the plane, began to misfire and then stopped.

He tried to glide the plane to a landing, but the machine crashed to the ground. The right wing crumpled against the earth and “probably saved Wylie’s life by breaking the force of his fall.”

His airplane was a total wreck, but Wylie escaped with only a few bruises.

His wife was sitting in an auto watching the crash. She rushed to the scene and “grasped her husband’s hand in relief when he sprang to the ground” from the plane’s cockpit.

From the draft beat: American citizens were rushing to the Canadian border at Northport, as well as other border crossings, in large numbers.

The reason? To avoid the draft.

The immigration inspector at Northport said that the movement has “been apparent for several weeks,” ever since the draft was announced.

He said that no regulation currently existed to prevent this exodus.

This was a reverse of the situation that had been occurring for the past several years, in which Canadians came to the U.S. to avoid Canadian military service.

Some of the recent rush could be attributed to a rumor that U.S. officials might close the Canadian border. This rumor had not been substantiated.