The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-04-07
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PariS-LOndOn Expresses Col
Iide Over French Village.
Six Killed as Mail Ship Hits a
Passenger Bus.
BOTH CHOSE SAME AIR ROUTE
Only Once Before Had This
Service Seen Amy Fatalities.
Had Been Looked Upon as Safe
as Ocean-RaiI Trip.
(By the Associated Press.J

I Paris, April THE Paris and Lon,
don aerial expresses collided in mid
/ air this afternoon over the village OF
Thieulloy. 20 miles north of Paris
I The pilots of both airpianes, three
/ passengers and one mechanic were
killed in wreckage that fell flamins
TO the ground
! The French airplane, piloted BY
Aviator Mire, aided by a mechanic
was carrying three passengers. II
left Lebourdet in the environs of Paris
at noon for London. The British air
plane which left Croydon, in the Lon
don area this morning carried mail
and was manned only by a pilot.
The aerial express service between
London and Paris was started in the
spring of 1919 and has come to be
regarded as one of the dependable
means of transportation between the
two capitals.
At first only patronized by travel
ers of an adventurous turn of mind
who wanted to have the thrill of air
travel it has developed within the
last two years, with the element of
danger reduced to the minimum into
steady daily route. The trip is
made in a little more than two hours
and at least half of the passengers
have been women.
Prominent officials have frequently
availed themselves of the air route to
attend hastily called conferences in
either Paris or London. During the
peace conference Bonar Law of the
British delegates made hurried trips
back to London to attend to routine
business, often returning the same
day.
King Albert and Queen Elizabeth
Of Belgium have also been passengers.
These luxurious air pullmans carry
ten or twelve persons in large com
Portable chairs Each seat has a
separate portfolio thru which the pas
senger can view the landscape. The
aerial fare has steadily decreased
since large mum bers of passengers
have taken to this form of travel,
and round trip tickets cost about $50.
Another and incidental development
of the air service has been the amount
of merchandise carried. Recently a
load of prize pigs was brought from
London to Paris by air express and
many dogs also made the trip.
Collisions between airplanes were
not unusual during the war when
flocks of machines were moving swift
" in a comparatively circumscribed
area. The meeting in midair of these
two aerial expresses. F~wever, almost
inconceivab bly, traver the very
same air channel out the virtually
innumerable ones available consti-
tutes one of the most remarkable
happenings in the history of aviation.
Only once before today's collision
has there been fatal accident in this
service. This occurred in December.
1920. more than a year after the serv-
ice was inaugurated, when a big air
liner. just as it was leaving Crickle-
wood near London. fouled a tree and
to the ground in flames, kill
ing the pilot, his mechanician and two
passengers
The British machine mad been in
use only three days on the express
route
The accident occurred during a fog.
the pilots seeing each other too lare to
avoid a collision.
Five persons from the machines
were dead when inhabitants of tile
village of Thieulloy arrived on The
scene.