While riding as a passenger in a willowy, wing-warping biplane piloted by Orville Wright, U.S. Army First Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge became the first person to die during powered flight.

Even Orville Wright himself was significantly injured while his passenger Thomas Selfridge became the first casualty of an airplane crash in 1908. Disaster is unfortunately an integral part of ...

Passenger Thomas Selfridge (left) and Orville Wright prepare to take off at Fort Myer, Virginia on September 17, 1908. They crashed soon after, and Selfridge became the first air fatality.