• 02
  Mar
  2012

• World Without Insurance: The First Airplane Fatality

  
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While the Wright Brothers are famously credited with inventing the first airplane, it is a matter of quite a lot of controversy. There are several competing claims, from all over the world. By the time the brothers had their first successful flight airborne in 1903, if all claims are to be believed, there were seven others who did the same before him. What’s more, Orville Wright was also the first pilot whose passenger died in a plane crash!

While it might seem like nothing today, what with jet planes and rockets shooting off in to space, it was quite a dangerous thing, in those days. And imagine, if you happened to lose your life while flying, there was no flight life insurance to take care of your family either!

Everybody remembers the brothers’ first flight, but hardly anyone remembers Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge. And yes, he was the passenger of the same Orville Wright, and the first documented passenger fatality.

In what has now become a footnote in history, when the Wright Brothers were trying to sell their airplane to the U.S. Army, they demonstrated the capability of the airplane to some officials, and Lt. Selfridge was one of the volunteers who participated in an exhibition flight. He died in the crash in the line of duty, and so, presumably, his family would have been eligible for flight life insurance benefits, but regardless, his name is etched in history for a sad reason.