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MET HIS DEATH IN FIRST FLIGHT
Leo Michener Had Been Up But Ten Minutes With Experienced Instructor
Machine Took a Nose Dive From a Height of Three Hundred Feet-Buried in Churchyard of Euston
[Welland Telegraph, 4 September 1917]
Mr. and Mrs. B.J. Michener last week, in letters from the Old Land, received the first details of the accident wherein their son Leo met his death.
Lieut. E.C. Eaton, Leo’s room mate and pal wrote as follows:-
“We reported to this squadron on the morning of the 1st, direct from Reading. That day being dull, no flying was done. The next day it rained but towards evening the rain stopped and it began to clear up. Though still pretty bumpy the squadron commander gave orders for flying and soon nearly everybody was up. The squadron commander himself, Major Ross, took Leo up in his machine for his first trial flight. The major was an experienced pilot and had been flying in France for the past two years. They were up about ten minutes and about a mile from the hangers when their machine was seen to suddenly nose dive from about three hundred feet. When the doctor got to the plane, about five minutes afterwards, the major was dead and Leo was unconscious. In another minute he breathed his last, without gaining consciousness and I can assure you that he could have suffered no pain.
On Saturday afternoon Leo was buried in the churchyard of the little village of Euston, about a mile and a half from this aerodrome. It was a military funeral, of course, with a firing party from a neighboring battalion. “Last Post” was sounded at the close of the service.”
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