100 years ago in Spokane: Woman aviator crashes at Parkwater Field, is gravely injured

Daisy Smith, 30, Spokane’s sole woman aviator, was fighting for her life at St. Luke’s Hospital after crashing at Spokane’s Parkwater Field.

Smith, the landlady of the California Hotel, had been in the habit of going for a 20-minute flight every morning. This time, something went wrong as she headed back toward the field.

Witnesses said at a height of about 200 feet, she slowed her motor and began a glide toward the runway. Suddenly, the machine “made a nose dive toward the ground.”

She was able to right the plane momentarily, but then it went into a tail spin and crashed in a sickening heap.

A Parkwater employee called for an ambulance and rushed to the scene along with other witnesses. Smith was unconscious, and tangled in “a mass of wood, wires and cloth.” Witnesses pulled her from the wreckage, and one of them rushed her to the emergency hospital.

Her injuries included a fractured skull, internal injuries, a broken right leg, and cuts and bruises all over her body. Doctors immediately operated on her, but as of that afternoon, she had not regained consciousness.

Smith took flying lessons in 1921 and later bought her own plane. She, along with two other pilots, made the first airplane journey over Glacier National Park.

“Clad in trousers, with goggles and helmet, Mrs. Smith had been a striking figure at the airplane field,” said the Chronicle. “… She was liked by all the flyers, who admired her for her pluck and persistency.”

Local aviators speculated that an unusual east wind contributed to the crash.