On May 17, 1927, Geiger died in the crash of an Airco DH.4 he was piloting as he was taking off for a flight to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland. A newspaper article reported six mechanics and officers at the Middleton Air Station, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania as saying that Geiger's airplane dove into the ground from a height of . Geiger managed to jump out just as the airplane struck the ground and burst into flames. He made desperate efforts to get clear of the wreckage and, according to the onlookers, half crawled and ran as far as the tail of the machine before he was overcome. There he dropped and the flames prevented the watchers from getting near enough to rescue him. Major Geiger was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
