total flight time of 190:28 hours. 21 April Their Royal Highnesses visit Australia to open the new Parliament House in Canberra. On this date, during their official visit to Melbourne, "and just as the royal procession was turning from St Kilda Road into the grounds of Government House, two DH.9 aircraft of the RAAF flypast collided. The crowd of many thousands watched as A6-5 and A6-26 disintegrated and plummeted to earth in the vicinity of Sturt Street, South Melbourne. Fortunately, there were no casualties among the crowd but all four RAAF aircrew were killed making it the worst aircraft accident in Australia to that time." 9 May Their Royal Highnesses, still in Australia, have the misfortune to witness the crash of SE-5a, A2-24, during the opening ceremony of Parliament House in Canberra. The pilot F/O F.C. Ewen is killed. "The following day, while returning from Canberra to Melbourne with photographs of the opening ceremony, SE-5a A2-11 suffered an engine failure and crashed in remote bushland near Whitfield, Vic. The pilot, Sgt Orm Denny, walked 25 miles to secure assistance." 17 May Major Harold C. Geiger (7 October 1884 – 17 May 1927), born in East Orange, New Jersey, a pioneer in Army aviation and ballooning, and commander of Phillips Field, Aberdeen, Maryland, is killed in the crash of his Airco DH.4B plane, 25-078. Six mechanics and officers at the Middleton Air Station, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania told The New York Times Geiger's plane took a nose dive. Geiger managed to jump out just as the plane struck and burst into flames. He made desperate efforts to get clear of the wreckage and, according to the onlookers, half crawled and ran as far as the tail of the machine before he was overcome. There he dropped and the flames prevented the watchers from getting near enough to rescue him. When the U.S. Army Air Corps purchases Sunset Field near Spokane, Washington in 1941, it is named Geiger Field in his honor. The Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory. 16 June A RAF Vickers Virginia makes an emergency landing at Shipbourne, Kent following an engine failure. The aircraft was later dismantled and removed by road. 6 July The crash/ditching in the Pacific Ocean ~ off of Fort DeRussy, Territory of Hawaii, of Boeing PW-9A, 26-353, c/n 778, of the 19th Pursuit