The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-01-03
Two Craft, AbIaze, Fall
5000 Feet and Plunge
Into Pacific Ocean.
SEARCH FOR BODIES
Kenneth Hawks, Famed as
Director, Is One of
Tragedy Victims.
BY GEORGE II. BEALE
United Press staff Correspondent

SANTA MONICA, Cal, Jan. g.
Filming of a motion picture, with
its climax modelled on the death at
sea of Captain Alfred Lowenstein,
the Belgian multimillionaire, took
ten lives in the Pacific ocean of
here late Thursday.
Just as the screen party was pre-
pairing to shoot the scene in which
Lowensten dropped mysteriously
from his airplane into the English
channel, two Of the three planes
used in the action crashed in mid-air
and carried all hands to death.
Three bodies were recovered short
" after the tragic collision and q
far-flung search to find the missing,
including Kenneth Hawks, director
husband of Mary Aston, one of the
screens most beautiful actresses, was
under way today.
Coast guard cutters, speed boats,
planes and blimp lowered over the
point where the two ships plunged
into the water.
In addition to Hawks, those still
missing were: George Eastman,
cameraman; Otto Jordan, assistant
cameraman; Paul Rous and Ross
Cook, pilots; and Tom Harris and
Hank Johaness, prop boys.
Those recovered were thrown clear
OF the planes as they fell. They
were Max Gold, assistant director;
Conrad Wells, cameraman, and Ben
Frankel, assistant cameraman.
Planes Crash, Fall
The party, headed by Hawks, an
aviator and a prominent film colo
ny figure. was about to take the final
shot" of the picture starring War
ner Baxter. The latter was not in
the party.
Two of the motion picture planes
carried the directors and the cam
eramen- The third held a parachute
jumper, who was to be filmed as he
fell to the water.
Witnesses said one of the two
camera planes suddenly sideslipped
into the other.
There was a crunch as the wings
struck and struts gave way and then
an explosion
The two planes, locked, fell in
flames 5000 feet to the water. Three
men either were thrown or jumped
from the ships as they fell.
Tangled In Wreckage
A lone burning wing tip stayed
- for- mir
went under. Presumably the seven
men still aboard went to the bot
tom tangled in the wreckage.
There was no water in the lungs
of the three men who went clear,
indicating they were killed by the
fall The men held In the planes
might have died either from the
shock of the fall, burned to death
or drowned.
Captain Roscoe Turner. one-time
holder of the tranScontinental speed
record, believed the men were dead
before they struck. Turner piloted
the plane carrying the parachute
jumper. He and Hawks were close
friends and Turner wept after he
landed his own party safely.
II didn't see the actual crash"
Turner said. when I looked back
the planes were locked and afire.
Nobody could have lived in that
crash
Hoot Gibson, one of the few
licensed pilots in the film colony,
saw the collision from the beach.
Blinded by Sun
IT think the pilots must have
been blinded by the sum-" he said
Il saw them touch wing tips and
then swing into each other. The
explosion was terrific and flames
engulfed both ships in second"
Miss AStor was in a state of COL
lapse today.
At the time the crash occurred
she was on the stage at the Ma
jeStic theater, going through matt
nee performance of a play in which
she was starred with Edward Everett
Horton. She was not told of the
accident until the show was ever.
Hawks and Miss AStor were mar
rted here three years ago.
He first came to the films as a
producing manager about four years
ago. Later he started directing pic
lures and then he married Miss
AStor, long a star.
He was born in Goshen, Ind,
was graduate of Yale and was a
member of the United States air
force in the World war. He did
not go overseas, however.
BECOMES MOVIE STAR