Jones, Russell G.

Russell G. Jones made at least five forced landings in the fall and winter of 1921-1922. On November 30, 1921, Jones' landing was so rough that the aircraft was "a complete washout" and had to be removed from the field by truck. When he made a forced landing near Neapolis, Ohio at 10:30 a.m. on December 21, Jones broke two longerons (fore-and-aft framing portion of the airplane's fuselage).

On May 9, 1922, Carl Egge, Superintendent of the Air Mail Service, wrote to field manager Whitbeck that he had heard Jones was complaining about the Air Mail Service to outsiders. Egge had heard that Jones had made disparaging remarks about the service while applying for employment elsewhere. According to Egge's source, Jones was quoted as saying that morale is exceedingly low in the service, that the pilots were required to fly ships not suitable for the work and in some cases ships that were very dangerous. Jones' remarks may not have been very politic, and most of the pilots would have argued about the issue of morale, but his remarks about the aircraft were not far off. Egge ended his note to Whitbeck by saying that "before I take the matter up with Jones I would like to hear from you." The matter resolved itself when Jones left the service the next month.

On March 19, 1921, Jones' de Havilland mail airplane's engine died in flight as noted in this forced landing report "without warning." Unfortunately for airmail pilots, this was not an uncommon occurrence, and most pilots were skilled at landing their aircraft without functioning engines. Jones damaged his craft badly enough on this landing that it had to be carted out of the area by truck.