Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-07
LOWENSTE|N HOAX
RUMORS PERSIST,
BUT PROBES FAIL
Many Hold Theory That
Wealthy Belgian Financier
! Vanished Alive.
DEATH MYSTERY DEEPENS,
SEARCH FOR BODY FUTILE
Tests Show It Difficult to Open
Door of Plane Through Which
He Is Said to Have Plunged.

Ey the Associated Press.
LONDON. July 7.-Discussion of the
mystery of Capt. Alfred Lowenstein
death by fall from his airplane into
the sea went on apace today.
Efforts to find his body at the point
where the crew of his plane and Its
hther occupants assert he fell into the
English Channel through accidently
opening the exit door Of the plane have
been futile. The pilot and mechanic
bf the plane spent several hours cruis-
ing about the spot in tug in fruit
less search.
Difficult To Open Door.
Tests made at lie Bourget airdrome
France. TO determine whether 1t was
possible to open the door Of plane
IN fight. showed it was not easy to dc
30. Two mechanics using plane SIM
liar to that from which Lowenstein dis
APPEARED. with the motor running al
fiiil force, found that the air pressure
was so great that the combined strength
of the two men was just sufiicient TO
open the door wide enough to permit
one of them TO pass through 1t. Yet
friends Of Lowenstein maintain that
he often opened the door Of his plane
TO look out over the sea and the land
Scape.
Runors that the whole affair was a
gigantic hoax were circulated IN bro
kers' Office and other concerns interest,"
ed in dealings of the stock exchanges or
London. Paris, Berlin and Brussels.
One suggestion was that Lowenstein
never left Croydon. Another rumor
was that he landed with the plane
somewhere between Croydon and Dun
Kirk, where IL Was first seen to land.
and disappeared or that he vanished
sn a fast motor car after landing at
Dunkirk.
Newspapers recalled that the mysteri-
Gus deaths Of prominent persons had
always been followed By such reports
Disappearance Alive Unlikely.
The Paris Journal had its correspond
mt at Calais investigate the possibility
of Loxenstein,s vanishing alive. He
made careful examination Of of1cfal
records Of the flight and reached ehes
conclusion that the time which clap, !
between the departure uf the plane
from Croydon and its landing &C Dun
kirk would have made II impossible
for the plane to have made another
stop en- route.
The correspondent thought that 1t
would have been equally impossible for
Lowenstein to have slipped away after
the plane landed at Dunkirk without
being observed II was fun daylight
st the time and the beach was open
without any trees or houses in the Vi
cinity to afford cover for fight. Also.
Police Commissary Breuillaard and
Capt Noel Of the gendarmes arrived
on the scene within quarter OF an
hour of the landing.
Kitchener Rumors Persisted.
The London Daily Mail, comment
ang on the rumors of disappearance,
said that the captain OF the Titanic
was reported as having been seen in
New York after the sinking OF that
vessel II also recalled that for a long
time the belief had persisted that Lord
Kitchener lived after the torpedoing
Cf the Hampshire In the World War
The Daily Express quoted an ur-
named intimate friend of LOwenstein as
eeying the Belgian was subject TO sud-
den heart attacks due to an abnormal
blood pressure of more than 200 milli-
meters instead Of the normal $50. The
discovery of his collar and tie In the
plane suggested to the friend the pos
sibIIity that Lowenstein had ripped
these OF to gain relief from sudden
attack. Finding this insufficient, ne
was thought TO have forced open the
door. splintering the wooden frame, to
get fresh air, collapsed from the ex-
ertion and plunged to his death.
Opinion of Inventor.
The Hague correspondent Of the Daily
Mail quoted the inventor Of the plane
a. saying that Lowenstein, being very
strong, might have applied the great
force necessary TO open the door III
q moment Of absent -mindednesS, mis-
taking it for another door in the plane
He thought that such a mistake was
unlikely however, since LOwenstein wa
thoroughly familiar with the arrange.
,aents in the machine.
All vino knew Lowenstein INSISTED
that he had no reason for committing
suicide. In Paris it was thought thal
the most plausible theory was that ths
banker had been thrown against tn
exit door when the plane was BANKING
on a turn and the door opened, permit
ting him 10 slip through TO his death
II was asserted that when the plan'
was banking the wind pressure on tn
door would have been less