The Washington times., 1930-01-03
LIVES LOST
IN MOVIE
STUNT

Of seven of ten men who went
hurting to their deaths when
two motion picture planes col
lded in mid-air and plunged into
the sea in mass Of tlames.1
Something went wrong as the
two cabin planes loaded with
cameras and equipment swung
into position yesterday toward
sundown.
Flying 5000 feet above the
ocean and about miles off shore,
their wing tips interlocked and
the two big planes staggered and
plunged.
Three Bodies Found
Onlookers saw three of the pas
sengers hurled clear and their
bodies recovered. The other seven
were carried beneath the surface
by the tons of wreckage.
Today a crew of divers and a
fleet of small boats were 20
comb the waters in an attempt
to locate the -wreckage and re-
cover the bodies.
Inc QeaLl llSI.
Kenneth Hawks, director and
husband Of Mary Astor.
Max Gold, assistant director.
Capt. Ralph Cook, pilot.
Lieut.. Hallock Rouse, Army Re
serve flier.
George Eastman, cameraman.
Conrad Wells, cameraman.
Ben Frankel, assistant camera
man.
Otto Jordan, assistant camera
man.
Tom Harris, property man.
Hank Johannes, property man.
Doors had been taken off the
planes before they left Clover
Field in order that the camera
man would have unobstructed
vision of the stunt they were to
photograph. This, it is believed,
will aid in nberating the bodies.
The two planes, together with
. third ship, had just jockeyed
into position, facing into the
setting sun. According to plans
they were to separate at 1000
feet to allow the third plane.
piloted by Col. Roscoe Turner, to
come in between. Rouse and
Cook were plotting.
Turner's plane carried Jacob
Triebwasser, Fred White. and
Fred Osborne. Triebwasser's para
chute leap was to be photo
graphed by cameramen in the
two ships, but the leap was never
made.
They were preparing to shoot
the last scenes of a film Sc
quence for the Fox Film Corpora
ton entitled such Men Are
Dangerous"
Based On LOwenstein Death
The story was based on the
mysterious death of Alfred Low
enstein. Belgian multi-millionaire
who disappeared from a transport
plane above the English Channel
July 5, 1928. Warner Baxter is
starred in the film.
Witnesses declare that one or
both of the pilots had perhaps
been blinded by the glare of the
setting sun.
Anyway the planes wavered.
One banked slightly to the right
and the other swerved upward
and banked to the left; then
they met in a sickening crash
and, locked together, plunged
into the sea.
Turner's plane at that time
was 1000 feet away from the
other two and at a lower alti-
tude.
The bodies Of Max Gold. as
Sistant director; Conrad Wells,
cameraman, and Ben Frankel, as
siStant cameraman, were identi-
fled after they floated to the
surface.
Howard Hawks. brother of the
dead man and husband Of Athole
Shearer, sister of Norma Shearer,
owes his life to a whirn that
caused him to decline an invita-
tion to ride in one Of the camera
planes. A second brother, Will
liam, married Bessie Love, film
star, recently.
Eyewitness Stories
Col. Roscoe Turner, a veteran
flier, hesitatingly gave the pic
ture of what he saw from the
cockpit of his Lockheed Vega
plane when the two movie planes
locked in their death embrace.
''I was flying in the lead with
Triebwasser, parachute jumper.
We had just left Clover Field
and were heading toward San
Vincent, where TriebwaSser's stunt
was to be photographed.
I'VE were out over the water
. when one of my passengers cried
out: They've hit!'
81 turned back in time to see
the blazing planes on the water,
locked together. The men were
probably dead before the ship
struck"
According to Hoot Gibson, mo-
ton picture actor. who saw the
tragedy from the shore, the pilots
were blinded by the sun which
shone in their eyes.
The planes seemed to wobble,
then come together" he said.
Their wing-tipS touched. and
one swung around so they met
head-on. I heard the crash and
roar from where I vaS. Both
hafrwA in flame and twN kr9iaz