MILLIONAIRE VANISHES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20024, 14 August 1928, Page 9

MILLIONAIRE VANISHES

FALL- FROM AEROPLANE.

SPECULATION AS TO CAUSE.

MANY THEORIES AND RUMOURS.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, July 13

Speculation is still going on as to the manner of Captain freti Loewenstein s disappearance. Can a man open the exit door of an aeroplane without exerting tremendous force ? The answer to that question, it is considered, should decide how the great financier met his death. Captain Loewenstein, a Belgian millionaire, who was accompanied by his valet, Mr. F. Baxter, and two shorthandtypists, left Croydon about 6.45 p.m. in his own aeroplane, a Fokker machine, which was piloted by Mr. Donald Rrew, Of Imperial Airways, Limited. From all accounts, Captain Loewenstein was in good spirits when he left Croydon. During the early stage of the flight he was reading; then he put down his book and retired to a small cabin at the rear of the saloon and in front of the bulkhead which divides the passenger section of the machine from the luggage compartment right aft.

To obtain an accurate impression of what happened it is necessary to understand that when the door of the small cabin is open it acts as a partition, completely shutting off the cabin from the passenger saloon. On the other side of the small cabin is the door on the port side of the fuselage. It is suggested that in one of those fits of extreme absentmindedness with which Captain Loewenstein was occasionally troubled, he mistook his way back into the saloon. To get there he would have merely to pull back the cabin door into its normal position, whereas if he opened the door of the hull he would drop out into space, and the passengers at the other side of the barrier formed by the cabin door would remain in entire ignorance of what had happened.

When Captain Loewenstein had been absent from the saloon for nearly a quarter of an hour the members of his staff became anxious. The valet went to investigate, and found that his master had disappeared. The catch of the fuselage door was down, and it seemed apparent that Captain Loewenstein, having unloosed this instead of merely restoring the cabin door to its normal position, had been flung 4000 ft. down into the sea. Test With an Exit Door. The suggestion is made that Captain Loewenstein had an attack of blood pressure. His collar and tie were founrl in the aeroplane lavatory after his disappearance. This fact suggests that he had a heart attack, that he tore off his collar and tie in order to breathe freely, and, finding this relief insufficient, forced open the exit door of. the airplane to obtain fresh air. The great exertion of forcing the door against the wind may have caused him to become unconscious, and thus he may have collapsed and fallen out.

One of the most discussed features of the case concerns the difficulty which, according to many experts, the banker would have experienced in opening accidentally the door from which he is believed to have dropped into the sea. In this connection an interesting experiment was carried out at Le Bourget aerodrome by the Dutch company which exploits the Paris-Rotterdam air line, using Fokker machines similar in design to that from which Captain Loewenstein disappeared. They sent up a machine in which two mechanics were to try to open the exterior door of the cabin during the flight.

According to the account of the experiment given by the Paris representative of the company who witnessed it, the two mechanics, both men of normal physical strength, found it impossible by their united efforts to open the door sufficiently wide to allow a person to pass through. It should be remembered, however, that Captain Loewenstein was a man of exceptional physical strength and iron willpower. Ho was, in short, a man who, finding that a door seemed to stick, might be expected to wrench at it with every ounce of power at his command. Presumed Alive ior 51 Years. Rumours and theories regarding Captain Loewenstein's disappearance persist. The theories are' that either he was not in the aeroplane, or made off from it when it landed on the sand dunes at Dunkirk during the journey Croydon to Brussels. The people in the aeroplane when Captain Loewenstein is reported to have disappeared, however, are said to be prepared to make an affidavit that he was in the machine when it started and that he was missing before the first landing on the sands near Dunkirk.

The Belgian Civil code states that the heirs of a person who has been "absent" for four years may apply for a "declaration of absence," and on this being granted the estate may be distributed. Tho distribution, however, is conditional. Should tho absent person reappear within 15 years the possessors of his property would be obliged to return it to him, together with a fifth part of the revenue obtained from such property in that time. If moro than 15 elapse orte-tenth of the rcvenuo from the property must bo handed back, while should there he a period of more than 30 years between tho date of the person's disappearance and reappearance, the heirs are entitled to retain the wholo. Death is never presumed until the moment that the absent person would have reached tho age of 100. Unless tho death of Captain Loewenstein is proved, his widow will not bo legally a widow until the date when her husband would have attained his lOOlh birthday—sl years hence.

A cablegram published last Saturday stated that Captain Loewenstein's estate is valued at £3,000.000, and that the fortune is to be divided equally between Jlis widow and his son.