September 9, 1897 - July 30, 1927

Source: See the sources in line below
Date of Death: July 30, 1927
Transcribed and submitted by: Sandy (Whalen) Bauer
Relationship:. James was married to my paternal grandmother's sister, Nellie Agnes Butler on July 23, 1919.

I am including the only photo I have of them together before he died in the plane crash.

Jim and Nell (Butler) Rose

Trapped In Flames; Two Die In Air

Chicago, July 20 - (AP) - Trapped in a blazing monoplane 700 feet above the ground, a flying instructor and a student aviator were killed tonight when they jumped from the ship to escape the fire.

The plane, a blazing, twisted mass of wreckage, crashed on a field near Oaklawn, a suburb, beside the bodies of the victims before the horrified gaze of a score of the village's residents.

BOTH OF CHICAGO

The victims of the crash, the second here within a week, were identified as George Zabriski, 28, instructor and James Rose, 30, a student both of Chicago.  The identification was made by Nimmo Black, head of the Aviation Service and Transport corporation, which employed Zabriski.

Witnesses said there was a puff of smoke and a loud explosion when the plane was at an altitude of about 700 feet.  The pilot apparently made a desperate effort to effect a quick landing and head its nose down as the ship burst into flame.  When about 500 feet from the ground, one of the men, his clothes ablaze, leaped to his death, and a second later, the second occupant, a human torch, jumped from the cockpit.

PLANE DESTROYED

The lane was destroyed by fire.  One of the bodies landed about 200 feet to one side of the burning ship and the other struck about 100 feet to the opposite side.

Both men were burned and were found to be without parachutes.  The plane had taken off from the municipal airport on the southwest side, and was headed back there when the accident occurred.  It was of the Swallow monoplane type.  Flyers who visited the scene of the accident, said they believed gasoline escaped from the fuselage, or that a gas tank had burst.

The accident occurred while an investigation was underway into a similar tragedy near Morton Grove, a suburb, last Sunday when a pilot and his two passengers were killed when the plant caught fire and crashed.

Chicago Tribune
Sunday, July 31, 1927, page 2

(Tribune photo)

Crowds viewing charred wreckage of Swallow type airplane in Oak Lawn last night after George Zabrieski, aviation instructor, and James Rose, his pupil, leaped to death when the machine burst into flames. The plane took fire when about 1,000 feet in the air. The air tragedy was the second in a week in the Chicago area.

Daily Independent
August 1, 1927 Murphysboro, IL

CHICAGO, August 1- (UP) - A city ordinance or state law making it compulsory for airplane owners to provide parachutes for pilots and passengers was discussed here today following death of George Zabriskie, pilot, and James Rose, student flier, when their plane caught fire.

Zabriskie was believed to have fallen from the machine when he crawled out on the wing to put out the fire with an extinguisher.  Rose jumped from the flaming craft when it was 200 feet from the ground.  Experts said lives of both would have been saved if they had had parachutes.

The plane, owned by Zabriski, was a new machine.

Chicago Tribune
Tuesday, August 2, 1927,  page 2

New Information Is Disclosed

Information given to chief Deputy Coroner Paul Rothenberg yesterday relative to the cause of the fatalities of Saturday was contradictory to some of the assertions made Saturday night.

George A. Zabriskie, the instructor-pilot for the University of Aviation, who was killed with James Rose, a student, was not a licensed pilot, Rothenberg was informed. As an aviator stated it:

"It appears certain that the gas line of the Swallow plane had a break and that the backfire of the engine started the flame. It would be instinctive for an experienced aviator to shut off his gasoline at once and then go into a side slip which would put out the fire.

"Zabriskie didn't do that. He apparently took the fire extinguisher and climbed on a wing, giving control of the plane to the student. Rose must have thrown the plane off balance, causing Zabriskie to fall, and then Rose jumped too."

Hunt Facts at Inquest The report to Deputy Rothenberg was that Zabriskie, though an aviation enthusiast, had not been an army flier, but had only about forty hours experience in the air, and that the school official had not kept faith with Maj. Philip G. Kemp, chairman of the mayor's air commission, who said none but licensed pilots were permitted to operate from the municipal airport.

"I don't know that this is the truth," Deputy Rothenberg said, "but we intended to find out at the inquest today."

ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF JAS. A. ROSE

Chicago Heights; Ill. Aug. 7, 1927
Editor Hardin Co., Independent, Elizabethtown, ILL.

Dear Sir: - As there are many relatives and friends of our family in Hardin county who will be anxious to learn the details of my brother's tragic death I will give an account of same to your paper for publication.

My brother, James A. Rose, 29 years old who was an aviation student in the Chicago University of aviation in company with his instructor, George Zabiske, July 30 took off from the flying field at the municipal air port at 63rd and Cicero Ave., Chicago at about 7:00 pm.

Upon leaving the ground they at once rose to a height of between 1500 and 2000 feet and then started on a direct eastward course.

A sister, Mrs. Lola Clark, of 1335 Prairie Ave., Chicago Heights whose husband, Chas. Clark, also an aviation student and who was in the air at the time watched them until they were out of sight the accident happened about 30 minutes later but only about four miles from their starting point.

According to person who witnessed the accident, the plane was notcied to be missing and hitting and at once burst into flames.

Observers aid that the pilot t once gave her a nose dive for a distance of about 500 feet which caused the flames to shoot upward, completely enveloping the occupants. He then put it on a horizontal basis and jumped, his body striking the earth with such a thud that it was heard for more than a block away. Apparently every bone in his body was broken, having jumped from a distance of 1000 feet.

My brother remained with the plane and banked it from side to side until within less than 100 ft. from the ground, when it was supposed he attempted to jump in the tops of a cluster of small trees, but the speed of the ship carried him over the tres and he and the plane dropped within about 20 feet of each other. He was badly burned about the face and upper part of his body. His neck, both legs and one arm were broken.

The ship was a new swallow type carrying a Curtis motor and just five weeks out of the factory but on that sad flight she made two widows, two orphans, broke up two homes besides saddening the heart of many relatives and friends.

My brother leaves a four months old baby and the pilot one nine months old. My brother's body was laid to rest in Jefferson Co. home of his wife, August 3.

James A. Rose as a son of the late James H. Rose who was well known in Hardin county and will be remembered as the mail carrier from Karbers Ridge to Shawneetown, who died suddenly at Karbers Ridge in1912.

He is survived by his wife and infant son, mother, two brothers Dr. C.A. Rose of Oak Park, Ill., J.M. Rose who is connected with the Ridgway schools but at present is attending school in Chicago and one sister, Mr. Lola Clark, of Chicago Heights, Ill.

Trusting this may find space in your columns.

I bet to remain, yours truly, J.M. Rose, (brother)