The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1913-10-23
28 DIE ON AIRSHIP.
ENTIRE GERMAN ADMIRALTY
TRIAL BOARD AMONG THOSE
SLAIN BY BLAST.
THREE OTHERS DIE IN FALLS
Baron Won 5leuI, the only Survivor,
With Both Eyes Burned Out, Bess
to Be Shot by Reseuers-Thousands
Witness Disaster.

Berlin, Oct. 20.-The newest of the
Zeppelin war airships, the LIZ. was de-
stroyed in midair by an explosion on
Friday. All but one of the twenty.
eight military men were killed.
Tie twenty-eight represented the
entire personnel of the admiralty
board which was conducting the final
trial of the dirigible looking to its ac-
ceptance by the government as a new
unit of the German aerial navy, the
pilot and crew and invited guests.
Every person that went aloft in the
big airship is dead.
Twenty-seven were killed almost in
stantly by the explosion of the gas in
the balloonettes or burned to death as
the flaming wreck fell to the ground
from a height of 900 feet
One man, Lieutenant Baron Won
Bleul of the Queen Augusta Grenadler
Guards, guest of the admiralty
board was extricated alive from the
twisted wreckage, His eyes were
burned out and he suffered other ter
rible hurts. Begging his rescuers to
kill him and end his sufferings, he was
taken to hospital where he died at
night.
The official report of the. accident
says the explosion was due to the ig-
milton OF gas in or above the forward
gondola but not within the body of
the airship.
The navy was not the only sufferer
of the day through aviation accidents
Three army officers we're killed in
aeroplane flights.
Emperor William, in a telegram to
the minister of marine, voiced public
sentiment concerning the accident by
saying:
The sorrow over what has hap
pened, am convinced, will only be
spur to renewed eXertions to develop
so important an aerial weapon into a
trustworthy implement of war;
The newspapers reflect the emper-
or's belief that there should be no re-
taxation in the efforts to supply Ger.
many with an adequate aerial fleet.
The total dead:
Lieutenant Bernisch, commander
and head of admiralty trial board con-
Quoting the final trial of the L-2 at a
speed of forty miles an hour.
Captain Glund, one of Zeppelin's vet
eran dirigible pilots.
Lieutenant Freyer, commander of
the airship's crew and favorite of the
emperor.
Lieutenant Baron Won Bleul, guest
on airship; rescued alive, but died in
hospital
Lieutenant Trenk, second in COM
mand.
Neumann and Pietzler, naval con.
structors.
Hanssman, chief engineer.
Busch, naval engineer, former navi-
gator Of the imperial yacht Hohenzol
.ern.
Nineteen members of the admiralty |
board and the LES crew.
Captain Haessler, member of the
army navigation corps; killed when
aeroplane landed in tree top near Bres-
au.
Lieutenant Koch, killed in fall OF
aeroplane near Wurzburg.
Sergeant Mantle, fell with Lieuten.
int Koch.
The airship disaster occurred above
he main street Of the city Of Johan-
listhal. while the big dirigible was
making a trial trip preliminary to its
as flagship of the new Ger
nan aerial navy. The shattered hulk
# the airship, mass of blazing can
-as and crumpled aluminium, dropped
100 feet into the public highway.
Hundreds of people who had been
the flight from parks and
Iousetops rushed to the scene. There
vas nothing to be done except to take
he bodies of the victims out of the
mass Of twisted wreckage.