The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-10-17
Especial to The Farmer.)

Berlin, Oct. 17-Germany's proud est airship. destined for use as the main unit of the aerial fleet of the German army, vanished in a blindfng flame, when 900 feet above ground, the craft was maneuvering on it's final trip before acceptance by the govern ment.
 Of the 27 people aboard, most of them disting guished in the military service, only one reached terra firma &1ixa,- -and his death is mom entarily expected. The other 26 were in cinerated, most of them burned be- yond recognition, and their corpses frikhtfuIly crushed in the terrible fall
 An admiralty board, consisting of a. number of officers including Lieut. Commander Behnisch and Senior Lieut.. FreyeP, of the German naval flying corps, was on board. The pilot was Captain G1und, 8 veteran steers man in the employ of Count Zeppelin, and Lieut.. Baron Yon BIeul, of the Queen Augusta Grenadiers Guards, making the trip as a guest was the only survivor of the wreck. He is in a dangerous condition. The members of the crew were so badly burned that they were unrecogntzable. 7 Coming so shortly after the destruc- ton of the ''L I" in the hurricane on the North Sea on September g, when
 
 gave rise to a feeling of consternation in Berlin, whose public had within week been saddened by the loss of many German passengers on board the burned and wrecked Vo1turno and by the accounts of the terrible mining catastrophe in Wales.
 Not only the German navy but the army as we'll suffered from aviation accidents, today. as three army offic- CTS belonging to the flying corps were killed, this morning, in aeroplane ac- cidents.
 The disaster this morning occurred at I0:15 o'clock, while the /dirigible was over the outskirts of Johannis- thai, sailing at a height of about 300 feet. The craft fell on the main high way leading into JohannisthaI. it's and twisted framework blocking the road.
 The exact cause of the accident Is not known. The dirigibIe had just left it's shed and trayersed barely a. quar- ter. of mile in the direction of Der lin when a, pillar of flame shot from the middle of the balloon. The next instant the craft was mass of flame, plunging' to earth, burying those aboard beneath its wreckage.
 The ''L 2'' was the latest and larg- est of the new craft designed for the German navy. It was about 500 feet long,
 U was impossible for some time to the flaming dirigible be- neath which the members of the crew had been crushed and burned.
 Naval Constructors Neumann and Pietzler and Naval Chief Engineer Busch were among those on board. : Lieut.. Commander Behnisch was a personal friend of the emperor. He was formerly navigating officer of the ] 3ohensholerin- and later commander of the cruiser Panther.
 A director of one of the aviation 1 1rome was an eye witness of the dis | aster.
 tI was at work in my office about l 500 yards from the scene of the ac- l ,ident," he said, when I was startled 1 0y an explosion of extraordinary vio- 1 ence and I rushed to window and | saw the new dirigibIe in flames and | towards the earth. The out er covering of the aircraft had been already burned off and the inner bal oonettes containing the gas had dis appeared.
 '"The naked aluminium framework with it's long center pieces, it's inter aced ribs and its tapering ends and with the gondo1as, containing the mo- OPS beneath, fell rapidly bow fore nost- When the skeleton of the i'm nense craft struck the earth the heavy 7ondolas buried themselves in the round.
 'T rushed immediately to the scene .fter ordering the fire department in ,rrived there was nothing left to be lone except to take out the dead 'odies of the victims from the mass f twisted wreckage.''
 The dirigibIe, before she left the alloon hall, took on board her regu-