NAVY DETAINS TWO DEATH PILOTS
Officer says Fliers “Directly Violated” Department Orders
PENSACOLA, March 26. (UP)
Commander W.D. Sample, executive officer of the Pensacola naval air station, said Wednesday that Mrs. Robert Phillips, Alabama turnip field worker, was killed by a naval plane being flown “directly contrary to naval orders.”
Sample said the navy would complete a formal inquiry Wednesday into the decapitation of Mrs. Phillips and forward its recommendations to Washington for official action against two naval fliers identified here as the occupants of the plane.
The officer said that the two fliers, Ensign J.C. Thompson of Healdsburg, Cal., and Student Pilot, Paul Brown of Chicago, told naval officers that they had an accident while flying low over the turnip field Tuesday near Robertsdale, Ala.
However, they were unable to land so they returned to the naval air station and reported the accident, Commander Sample said.
Thompson and Brown were being held in quarters pending orders from Washington as to their disposition.
Source: The Miami News, Miami, Florida, Wednesday, March 26, 1941; Pg. 1, Column 8
