30 years AFTER the fact, daniels writes a little note. You do not know the state of mind he was in when (and if ) he wrote the note. He may have been a victim of disease, drugs, or booze. AND NO ONE ELSE of the company of men who watched the flights was contacted or questioned.
John T. Daniels repeated the things he had written in that letter from 1933, two years latter, in 1935, in the presence of another eye witness, A. D. Etheridge, who confirmed he had also seen the same things as Daniels.
In a statement made 32 years later on 12 March 1935, Mr. J. T. Daniels, then a member of the Nags Head Coast Guard Station, stated: "Orville Wright made the first flight in the plane with the power in it, between then and eleven o'clock, the 17th of December, 1903, and he went some 100 feet. Then we carried it back on the hill and put it on the track and Mr. Wilbur Wright got in the machine and went about one half mile out across the beach towards the ocean. Then we carried the machine back to camp and set it down and the wind breezed up and blew it over and just smashed it to pieces with me hanging on to it. The way they decided who was to make the first flight was as they were talking, Wilbur and Orville walked aside and flipped a coin, and Orville won the toss and he made the first flight."
Mr. A. D. Etheridge who was at the Nags Head Lifesaving Station on March 12, 1935, gave a few more details on the preparation for the flight in 1903 when he was stationed at the Kill Devil Lifesaving Station:"We assisted in every way and I hauled the lumber for the camp. We really helped around there hauling timber and carrying mail out to them each day. It would come from Kitty Hawk by patrol each night. In pretty weather we would be out there while they were gliding, watching them. Then after they began to assemble the machine in the house, they would let us in and we began to become interested in carrying the mail just to look on and see what they were doing. They did not mind us at all because they knew where we were from and know us. We inquired what day they expected to fly. Finally they told us the day. Finally, on this day, the 17th of December, Daniels, Dough and myself were out there helping to get the machine out of the camp out on the track. They started the motor, testing it out for quite a while. Finally, they got to talking about getting together about flying and got it ready to turn loose. Finally, they decided to try the flight and then they went on just about the way you have been told by Daniels. They talked matters over---how delighted they were in what they had done in their flights and were expecting to try it---the machine---over and they gave up right then an packed up and went home. They said they were very well satisfied with what they had done. At that time they assembled everything they wanted to take away. They said they were going to take the engine back with them and the wings of the plane they left with me. Later I got a letter from a man in Philadelphia telling that Wilbur had written and told him that I had the old plane and that he wanted to buy it if I would dispose of it; so I wrote him a letter that I would sell it to him for $25.00. He sent me a check for it, and it is right here that I lost a fortune if I had kept it."
Source: USCG: Frequently Asked Questions
The 1935 declaration of A. D. Etheridge contains another big trouble for the Wright brothers' credibility. Etheridge said the two inventors had taken just the engine back with them while the plane remained with Etheridge who latter sold it for 25$ (big money for 1903).
The story of Orville Wright is that he and his brother took the remains of the 1903 plane back with them and latter Orville rebuilt the plane which reached England, remained there till after WWII and finally returned in US, being displayed now in a museum.