Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-10-18
: Dashes 900 Feet to Ground
With Officers and Crew.
Only One Escapes, He May Die
Engine Trouble Cause.
Trial Trip..aany Of Prominent Navy
Officers Aboard--Army Losses.

Berlin, Oct. IA disaster in the
air, involving the destruction Of an
other great Zeppelin dirigible and the
loss Of the lives of . out of the % on
board occurred, this morning, near the
Johannisthai aerodrome when the new
diTglble LIZ. was making its trial
trip before acceptance as a main unit
of the aerial fleet attached Ia the Ger
man navy.
An admiralty board consisting of a
number Of officers, including Lieut..
Commander Behnisch and Senior
Lieut.. Freyer of the German naval
flying corps. was on board. The pilot
was Captain Gluth, veteran steers
man in the employ of Count Zeppelin,
and Lieut.. Baron Won Bleu of the
Queen Augusta Grenadier Guards was
making the trip as a guest and was
the only survivor of the wreck He
is in a dangerous condition. Many of
the bodies of the members of the crew
were so badly burned that they We're
not recognizable.
Occurring so shortly after the
wrecking of the IL in q hurricane
in the North Sea, Sept. .. when IL
men We're Killed. todays disaster gave
rise to feeling of CONSERVATION in
Berlin, whose public had within
week been saddened by the loss of
many German passengers on board
the burned and wrecked Volturno
and by the accounts of the terrible
mining catastrophe in Wales.
Hundreds of people witnessed the
explosion and We're appalled, when
they saw the great structure burst in
to flame and then fail from height
of 800 feet, its blazing canvas and
twisted aluminium frame blocking the
public highway.
1t was impossible for sometime to
approach the flaming dirigible. be-
meath which the members OF the crew
had been crushed and burned.
Naval Constructors Neumann and
Pietzler and Naval Chief Engineer
Busch were among those board.
Lieutenant Commander Behniseh
was personal friend of the Emperor.
lie was formerly navigating officer of
the imperial yacht Hohenzollern and
later commander of the cruiser PAN
Their.
Lieutenant Freyer. formerly was
personal adjutant of Prince Adelbert
one of the sons of the Emperor. He
served with the prince on board n
torpedo boat after studying with him
at the naval academy.
The dirieible before she left the
balloon hail took on board her regu-
lar naval crew and several officers.
She headed for Berlin, a short dis
lance off, in a light wind About
dozen aeroplanes were eircling the
aerodrome at the time. EVERYTHING
was apparently in good order on the
airship when she started. Then sud
denly an explosion was heard by those
on the ground. evidently in one of the
motors in the center gondoa. A flash
shot out and in the next instant the
whole ship was on fire and plungine
downward Every inch of the canvas
covering and the balloonets disappear
ed in second.
a second and more violent explo-
sion was then heard. the fire having
reached the gasoline tank filled with
a ton of fuel, and in another instant
the wreck of the newest and most
modern of Germany's dirigibles lay
flaming mass on the ground. The fire
departments of all the neighboring
suburbs, with detachments of the bal
loon corps, the pioneers and other
troops. We're soon on the spot but
there was nothing left to save.
Pioneers armed with axes hacked
at the wreckage for two hours before
they could extricate the last of the
bodies of the victims.
The six inmates of the center gon-
dola had been blown through the sides
of the ear by the first explosion, and
their bodies fell 400 yards away from
the wreck of the balloon, which was
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