On 19 September 1936, while preparing for the race, he was killed at Liverpool, Speke Airport, in a ground collision. A RAF bomber that had landed ran into Black's Mew Gull as he taxied out for take off. Black was reputed to have been looking down at his map at the time. The propeller of the large biplane tore through the side of Black's cockpit, striking and mortally wounding him in the chest and shoulder. He died on the way to hospital. He left a widow, the English actress Florence Desmond, whom he had married in 1935.