The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-10-01
GERMAN PILOT
LAYS DISASTER
TO LANSD0WNE
Charges Members of Crew
Mistrusted Shenandoah
on Last Flight
TESTIMONY STARTLING
Pilot Asserts Crew Feared
Tragedy Because of Ships
Condition

LakehurSt, N. j., Oct. l.--lA)--Ben-
jamin o. Hereth. a Shenandoah sur
vivor. and James Work. chief drafts
man at the air station here, were
named today by Captain Anton
Heincn. zeppelin pilot as the man
who gave him the information upon
which most Of his testimony was
based.
The witness furnished the names
on the direct order of the court, Rear
Admiral Jones. the president demand
ing the names. since the men them
selves had not come forward. Heinen.
in withholding the names yesterday.
said he thought they should be per-
mitted to volunteer the information.
Was Crew Member
The witness said Hereth came to
him and told him what happened as
the Shenandoah broke up. He could
not say how long Hereth, n machin-
lists mate, had been in the crew.
Work was the man. Heinen says, told
him that those at the station had
been fighting the valve change on
the Shenandoah all along but with
out success.
Asked as to who in the crew told
him the men were afraid to make
the trip on the Shenandoah. Heinen
said man named Buckley at the Air
station had told him this secretly.
He was unable to say whether Buck
ley was attached to the ship.
"Then of your own knowledge you
know of no member Of the crew who
was afraid to make the trip?'
asked Admiral Jones.
"Unless Buckley was member,
no." was the reply.
what was Hereth's condition as
to sobriety at the time he talked to
you? inquired Lieut.. Commander
Rosenthal, senior officer
HE could have sat here in this
court with perfect propriety in the
condition he was," he answered.
Replying to hypothetical question
put by the court, Captain Heincn
said there were no outside forces IN
the air that could break up a dirigi-
BILE unless the hull structure pre-
viously had been strained by inter-
nal pressure.
NEW LEADS
Lakehurst~ N. j., Oct. 1.-P)-
Several new and, it may be, import
ant leads have been furnished the
Naval court here inquiring into the
Shenandoah disaster by Captain An
ton Heinen, former German zeppelin
pilot, who was recalled today for
further questioning on the rather
startling testimony he gave yester-
The particular points in his state
ment into which the court must in
quire, are:
l. That every officer and man at
the air station here knew why the
disaster occurred.
2. That many members Of the
crew mistrusted the Shenandoah
when she began her last flight be-
cause Of her condition.
3. That official approval was not
given for the change of the automo-
tic valve system on the ship.
Call Witnesses
While the court did not press yes
terday for the names of the officers
or men whom Eeinen said were his
informants, it is the intention to get
these names and call the men on the
witness stand.
Perhaps the most startling portion
of Heinen's testimony was that plac-
ing responsibility for the disaster
squarely on Commander Zachary
Lansdowne, captain of the ship. The
witness, in previous statement to
the newspapers, and said that Com
mander Lansdowne was no more to
blame than he was.
Heinen explained that his conclu-
sions had been modified in the light
of the evidence added before the
court.