This plane is also remembered for a tragedy on 4 May 1919, which killed the French General Milan Rastislav Stefanik, who was the minister of war in the Czechoslovak Republic at the time. The accident occurred at the conclusion of a flight from Campoformido near Udine to Bratislava (capital of Slovakia). On its initial approach, the aircraft nosedived and crashed few kilometers from the airfield. Stefanik and the three Italian crew members were pronounced dead at the scene. One possible explanation is a failure of the airblast cooling of the engine, probably induced by the increased strain caused by the pilot's sudden demands on the engine after the aborted landing. Another explanation presents the accident as the result of unstable weather conditions at the airfield in Bratislava, including possible crosswinds.