The Thibodaux sentinel. (Thibodaux, La.) 1905-1912, 1911-04-15
BALLOON DROPS 1900 FEET
AT ST. LOUIS, AND AiRMEN ONLY
BRUISED AND SCRATCHED.
They Were Undaunted by the Mishap
and Expect to Try Again-Million-
aire Drew Was the Pilot.

st. Louis, Mo.-The balloon st. Lous
Ill, with Andrew Drew, heir of the late
millionaire Francis A. Drew, as pilot,
and three other officers of the National
Guard Signal Corps in the basket,
dropped 1000 feet Sunday and landed
in the Frisco Railroad yards. Aside
from bruises and scratches none of
the aeronauts was injured
In the fall the balloon struck the
side of the tall Liggett & Meyers
smokestack, crashed against several
buildings and went hurting over a.
mountain of old asphalt, with the bas-
ket bounding roughly. The aircraft
narrowly escaped becoming entangled
in the maze of telegraph wires that
parallels the tracks, and Pilot Drew
skillfully Jumped" it over The bal
loon is of S0,000-feet capacity and is
the property of the st. Louis Aero
Club 1t was known to be "leaky" be-
fore the start, and the trip, which was
the first of series to be made by the
signal corps, of which Drew is lieuten-
ant, was to be of short duration, it be-
ing determined to land in the country
about thirty miles out. Drew is dar-
ing aeronaut and has had many mar
row escapes in aeroplane and balloon
fights.
Besides Drew there were in the par.
ty Lieutenant John P. Hart, Sergeant
Bayard T. Bookman and Sergeant ]. A.
Obermeyer. 1t was one of Drews many
balloon ascensions, but was the first
time the others had felt terra frma
slipping from them. None is daunted,
and each stated that he would be one
OF the party for the ascension next
Sunday.
I'VE knew the bag was leaky," said
Drew, "and we intended only to make
short flight. must say that nev-
er saw men conduct themselves better
under terrifying circumstances than
did the three men who were with me.
Never for one instant did they lose
their presence of mind, nor made any
effort to leave the balloon until gave
the word. Had they jumped when
they could have insured their own
safety the leaky balloon would have
risen again to great height and left
me helpless.
II knew that we were dropping, and
that we were dropping at a terrific
rate of speed. So fast were we drop
ping that | called to Lieutenant Hart
to at once drop several sacks of bal
last. This stopped our descent momen-
tarily, but after few minutes could
see that we were still dropping. even
faster than ever.
THE wind was still bearing us
westward. Now the great Liggett &
Meyers tobacco plant appeared to rise
up from the ground and meet us. We
were headed directly for it, and there
was no escaping it, as we were drop
ping at a frightful rate.
"The big smokestack was directly in
our path. I saw that we were sure to
strike it. We moved back in the bas-
ket and allowed it to strike the pile Of
bricks with full force Then we
bounded against several buildings
Il expected the gas bag to burst
when we struck the chimney and that
we would slide down its side and prob
ably alight on the roof.
''The unexpected happened, however,
and the balloon bounded off the brick
chimney as though it were a ball and
at the same tine continued its des-
cent.
I'VE struck the corner of the roof of
the building and the basket was swirl
ed into the air. but all held ON tight
and no one was jostled out, as we fear
ed we might be. Just beyond was the
railroad tracks and this huge pile of
stones. To alight on this was filled
with danger, but we managed to es.
cape with slight injuries"