French army aviator Lieutenant Leon Collet attempts a flight through the base of the Eiffel Tower, Paris, before colliding with radio wires and crashing to the ground. — Otago Witness, 20.4.1926 Paris, February 24: A bet made by an airman named Leon Collet that he would fly beneath the Eiffel Tower had a tragic ending. The airman accomplished the actual feat, but when attempting to rise his machine became entangled in the aerial of the wireless station, and dropped like a stone over the Champs de Mars, crashing through a tree to the lawn below. Flames broke out, and  the pilot was burned to death in his seat.