AERIAL TRAGEDY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 167, 20 August 1914, Page 8

AERIAL TRAGEDY.

DIRIGIBLE AND BIPLANE COLLIDE. Nine military and naval aviators were killed or burned to death to-day in one of the most,remarkable accidents in the" history of wrote the special correspondent of an American paper on June 20. \ * • v * • The army dirigible balloon Koerting I ascended at "a few miles from here, this morning for the purpose , of taking photographs >., of the troops underneath,; who w,ere .participating in ; the army manoeuvres, and, whose, move- r ments were being watched a,, great •• gathering of people. The - Koerting, which was a dirigible pr> the Parseval type, was the following crew:—Capt. Hauswert; Keuts. Hofstaet'ter, Bruer, Haidinger, Corporals Hadima and -Wiber, %AW Effgineer Kammerer. '• ' A " ';'""'' ~" ;'■ '...-' The dirigible described a few Circles in the air and was then steered the' ■ historic Koenigsberg hill.'Half an hour later a Farman biplane: ascended these men:—Lieuts:rFlattz"and Buchta. The biplane started at oiiee';to|fflHos!r "the balloon. ■'.' The' commander ;the smaller craft wished to show thej superior mobility of the aeroplane oyer the dirigible, and he encircled the balloon several times, and then apparently began a sham attack on the bigger machine. The pilot of the biplane suddenlymanoeuvred his machine with the idea of taking a position directly over the airship in such a mannerthat in;actual warfare he could .drop a'bomb on the * balloon. No one knows '•-■ exactly what happened, as everyone aboard both craft was killed, but the pilot-of the smaller machine must have made a mistake in the distance or in* the speed, of his machine, for the aeroplane suddenly rammed the airship in such a manner that the big envelope was torn. Another theory the aeroplane was caught in the eddies of, the Koer- .._ ting, which were aggravated by a sudden squall, and that the pilot of the aeroplane could not control his machine. Terrific Explosion Follows.

The collision was followed by a terrific explosion, which was probablycaused \by a spark froin the motor of the aeroplane igniting fhe gas escaping from the balloon. Both machines were immediately; enveloped iin -flames,, aatd, they cametiown from a.height.of ; feet together, in a mass of\; , alighting on the slope of Koenigsberg Hill. Every man in both machines was killed or burned to death, and -the bodies were mutilated and charred beyond recognition. The collision occurred so quickly and unexpectedly that the troops and people below were dumbfounded for a* moment, but the soldiers soon recovered their calmness and rushed up the hill to the point where the wrecked machines lay. The nine bodies were all found clef" together. - Bride of Month a Widow. A great crowd soon gathered on the slope of the hill, and there were some heartrending scenes. Lieutenant Hofstaetter had been married but a month, and his wife had arrived at the reviewing grounds just as the catastrophe occurred. She is in a seriotis condition as the result of the shock. Lieutenant Flatz was to have been married in a few days. The men in both machines were all experienced aviators, and Captain Hauswert and the men with him in the dirigible had been up in the air in that machine on several previous occasions. No tragedy of this magnitude has ever occurred in the air before, although there have been several collisions between air craft. A collision • occurred between two French aeroplanes at an aviation meeting in Paris in October, 3910, but the two aviators escaped with comparatively slight injuries. Two Germau machines came together over the Johannisthal aviation field at a height of 150 feet, but in this case also the two aviators and a passenger in one of the machines escaped with more or less serious injuries. The last fatal collision in the air was during the British Army manoeuvres at Aldershot on May 13 of the present year. Two army biplanes came together head on, and Captain F. D. Anderson and a mechanic named Carter were killed. Lieutenant C. W. Wilson was seriously injured, and both machines were destroyed. _