The Last Flight of Alfred Loewenstein

By: Jeylyn Portillo

On the 4th of July, 1928, a wealthy Belgian businessman named Alfred Loewnstien arrived at the airport on route to his home in Brussels. After being guaranteed a smooth flight, Loewenstein and six others boarded his private plane. Shortly after 6 p.m, the plane had ascended to a height of 4,000ft.

Loewenstein spent the first half of his flight writing notes and later headed to the rear of the cabin. At the rear of the cabin there was a windowless door leading to a small restroom. Also there was a door leading to the exterior, distinctly labeled as “EXIT”. After ten minutes had passed, the other passengers noted that he was yet to return to his seat. Loewenstein’s valet named Braxter grew concerned and went to check on him, yet there was no answer. Braxter feared Alfred was ill and therefore forced the restroom door open, but to his horror, the room was empty. Alfred Loewenstein had seemingly “vanished into thin air”.

The plane could have easily diverted course and landed at an airstrip near Calais, France, but rather than doing so, the pilot bizarrely decided to turn around and make a landing at what they thought was a deserted beach near Dunkirk.The beach, not deserted, was actually a military training base. The crew was interrogated by a lieutenant, who tried to make sense of what had happened. The pilot was particularly suspicious, as he avoided his questions for half an hour before finally admitting that Loewenstein had been lost somewhere over the English Channel. The lieutenant decided not to arrest anyone and allowed them to continue their flight.

Loewenstein’s body was retrieved by two fishermen on July 19th, over two weeks since he disappeared. A post-mortem revealed that he had a partial fracture of his skull and several broken bones. Forensics determined that Loewenstein had been alive when he hit the water.

There are many theories as to how Loewenstien had managed to fall out of the plane. One of them suggests that he confused the doors and instead opened the door leading to the outside, leading to him plummeting to his death. However, this theory is very unlikely because opening a plane door mid-flight is nearly impossible. This was recreated by some professionals and they found out that it took two very strong men to open the door due to the slipstream pressing against it. Another popular theory is more sinister and plausible, that Loewenstein was forcibly thrown out of the plane by the whole or part of the crew. A possible explanation for this is that his wife wanted his fortune and they already had a cold relationship.

Whatever the case, Alfred Loewenstein was found missing from his plane and his body recovered from the English Channel. His death was almost certainly a premeditated and cold act by the people he trusted the most. Some could say that it was a perfect crime- no one was charged, no one was even accused. Loewenstein was set to rest in an unmarked grave, proof of his unpopularity among the people, where not even his own wife bothered to attend.