MILLIONAIRE'S DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20084, 23 October 1928, Page 10

MILLIONAIRE'S DEATH.

LOWENSTEIN'S GREAT FALL

ALIVE ON REACHING WATER

[from our own correspondent.] LONDON. Sept. 13.

The death of Captain Alfred Lowenstein, the. Belgian financier, who disappeared from his airplane while flying the Channel on July 4, was an accident, and was caused by the violence with which the body struck the water from a height of 4000 ft,

There, according to information received from Paris, are the conclusions reached by Dr. Charles Paul, tho famous French pathologist, and his colleague, Professor KolinAbrost, director of tho Paris Toxicological laboratory, who were charged respectively with the autopsy of tho body and tho analysis of the organs in order to establish the causo of deatli. Thov have forwarded their report to the local authorities at Boulogno.

The two oxperts agree that lifo was not extinct until the body reached the water. Dr. Paul arrived at this deduction from the condition of tho bruises and wounds found on tho body, and which indicato that blood circulation was functioning partially when these wore inflicted.

Professor Kohn-Abrcst found no sen water in any of tho organs except the lungs, proving, he asserts, that lifo bocame extinct at the moment of immersion, when the heart and livor ceased to function.

They both declare that Captain Lowenstein was most probably unconscious or semi-conscious during tho fall, indicating tho probability that while ho was in tho washroom of the airplane ho became dazed with pain, and possibly while in this statelurched heavily and accidentally against tho door, which was forced open and, through it, ho was precipitated into space. No trace whatever of any toxic substance or any drug was found in tho organs, and only a small quantity of alcohol, such as would have been taken ordinarily with a small meal. A special search was tnado for mercury, but no trace was found.

The report agrerfs that there was nothing to disprove the theory of an accident., and that no indication whatever of violence was found, such as the clenching of tho fingers or a traumatic or morbid state of tlus wounds. This report, it is considered, disposes, effectively of tho rumours which wuro current after his death that Captain Lovvenstcin had been poisoned.