Orville Wright came to Fort Myer, Virginia in September 1908 to demonstrate the Wright Flyer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps division. Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge arranged to be a passenger. During the flight, the right propeller broke and then shattered, and the plane crashed. Selfridge suffered a fracture at the base of his skull (flight helmets were not commonly worn at that time) during the crash and died a few hours later, while Wright survived with several injuries. Selfridge was the first person to die in an airplane crash and the first Active Duty member of the U.S. military to die in a plane crash while on duty.
(C.H. Claudy. U.S. National Archives)