On this day in Arlington history, October 31, 1934, the Washington Evening Star reported that a Witch would be riding through the sky with a broomstick and would land at Washington Airport in Arlington.
In truth, it was Eddie Butler, a parachute jumper who jumped at 2,000 feet and was clad in a long black robe and pointed hat. He jumped from a plane at about 10:30 at night and floodlights were turned on to illuminate him on his way down as he landed on the airfield.
Eddie Butler was a veteran stunt parachute jumper who had made over 1,600 parachute jumps by 1934. He was a barn stormer, wowing spectators with wild airplane stunts as a pilot and wing walker. As a professional parachutist, he and other parachutists would regularly jump out of planes and he worked out of Washington-Hoover Airport in Arlington and Baltimore’s Curtiss-Wright Airport. During the Cherry Blossom Festival, he would parachute out of a plane and splash into the Tidal Basin. He also awed children of all ages by dressing as Santa Claus and parachuting out of planes during the Christmas season.
The Halloween parachute jump was just two weeks after a jump in which one of his parachutes ripped and his second parachute failed to open. Butler landed hard on the airfield but he was uninjured. He was quoted as saying “It was a bad moment. I didn’t know whether the torn parachute would let go any further. If it had I guess I wouldn’t have made any more jumps.”
But he made plenty more jumps and he worked as a parachute tester at the Switlik Parachute Company. He also tested airplane safety devices that helped pilots during World War II. He was killed in 1944 in the crash of an open cockpit Pitcairn aircraft that had developed engine trouble.
