The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-17
The Zeppelin Dirigible "L-2"
ExplOdes in Midair
just After Starting on Its Final
Trial Trip.
ALL ON BOARD KILLED BUT ONE
Craft Falls on Public Highway
a Burning Wreck.
Carried % Persons, Including
Number of Officers.

Berlin, Oct. 1.-THE newest and larS-
est of the Zeppelin war airships the
'L-2' was destroyed in midair by an
explosion at 10:15 o'clock this morning.
All but one of the 81 military men on
board, including the entire admiralty
trial board, were killed.
The disaster occurred just above the
main street of the city of Johannisthal,
while the big dirigible, 500 feet long
was making trial trip. preliminary
to its acceptance as flagship of the New
German aerial navy. The shattered
bulk of the airShip, a mass of blazing
canvas and crumpled aluminium drop
ped 900 feet into the public highway.
/ Hundreds of people, who had beelr
watching the fight from parks and
house tops, rushed to the scene. There
was nothing to be done, except to take
out the dead from the mass of twisted
wreckage.
! Lieutenant Baron Won Bleul of the
Queen Augusta grenadier guards who
was making the trip as a guest was
the only survivor of the wreck. He
was badly injured and his condition is
critical.
Many of the bodies were SO burned
and mangled as to be unrecognizabIe.
Those on Board.
The admiralty board consists of seven
officers, including Lieutenant Comman-
Freyer of the German navy flying
corps The airship pilot was Captain
Glund, a veteran steersman in the en-
ploy of Count Zeppelin.
| Naval Constructors Neumann ana
Pietzler and Naval Engineer Busch
were a mong those on board the LIZ
Lieutenant Commander Behnisch was
close personal friend of the emperor.
He was formerly navigating officer OF
the imperial yacht Hohenzollern ana
later commander of the cruiser Pan
ther.
ite of Emperor William. He was for
merly personal adjutant of Prince Adal-
bert one of the sons OF the emperor
He served with the prince on Doard
torpedo boat after studying with hiIn
at the naval academy.
Spectators who had been watching
the impressive maneuvers of the LIZ
from below, suddenly saw the great
gas bag burst into glaring hame anu
then fall. A second or two later, the
reverberating sound of the terr1nc ex-
plosion reached them. 1t was 1mpossl-
BILE for some time to approach the
flaming dirigible, beneath which the
members of the crew had been crushed
and burned. A director of one of the
aviation companies at the Johannisthal
aerodrome was an eye witness of the
disaster. He described it as follows:
Story OF an Eye WItHtSS.
ct was working in my office about
800 yards from the scene of the accl-
dent when 1 was startled by an explo-
sion of extraordinary violence My
first thought was that an aeroplane
had landed on the roof of my building
and that the gasoline tank had ex-
ploded. 1 rushed to a window and saw
the new dirigible in flames and plung-
ing toward the earth. The outer COW
ering of the air craft had been already
burned off and the inner balloonets,
containing the gas, had disappeared.
THE naked aluminium frame work
with its long center pieces, its inter
laced ribs and it's tapering ends, and
the gondolas containing the motors be-
meath, fell rapidly bow foremost
When the skeleton of the immense
craft struck the earth, the heavy gon-
dolas buried themselves in the ground.
1 rushed Immediately to the scene, aft
er ordering out the fire department
from the aerodrome."
Coming so shortly after the destruc-
ton of the LII in a hurricane in the
North sea on Sept. 9, when Is men were
killed, today's disaster gave rise to
feeling of CONSERVATION in Berlin,
whose public had within a week been
saddened by the loss of many German
passengers on board the burned Vol
turno and by the accounts of the ter
rible mining catastrophe at Wales.
The Start.
The dirigible before she left the bal
loon hall at Johannisthal took on board
her regular naval crew and a number
of officers. She headed for Berlin,
short distance away, in a light wind.
About dozen aviators We're circling
the aerodrome at the time in aero
planes.
Everything was apparently in good
order on the airship.
She was gradually getting up speed
when suddenly an explosion was heard
by those on the ground, evidently one
of the motors in the center gondola.
flash shot out and the next instant the
whole ship was afire and plunging
downward. Every inch of the canvas
covering and the balloonets dfsap-
peared in a moment
a second and more violent explosion
was then heard, the fire having reach
ed the gasoline tanks filled with about
a ton of liquid fuel. Before the
echoes of the explosion had died down
the wreck of the most modern of Ger
many's dirigibles lay a flaming mass
on the ground. The fire departments
of all the neighboring suburbs with
detachments of the balloon corps, the
pioneers and other troops, were soon
on the spot, but there was nothing left
to save. The balloon lay in a great
glowing wires and tangled girders
The cylinders of the motors in the
center gondola and one of the after
prcpeHers could be distinguished
Otherwise there was nothing to indi-
cate that the debris was that of Ger
many's proudest airship.
Taking Out the Bodies.
Pioneers armed with axes hacked at
the wreckage for two hours before