The twisted death of the third richest billionaire on the planet

BelgiumTycoon, billionaire Alfred Loewenstein suddenly fell from his private plane from an altitude of 1,200 meters in 1928.

The disappearance of Alfred Loewenstein is one of the most puzzling mysteries in modern American history. During the 1920s, he was named the third richest man in the world, a symbol of the wealth and surplus of the Golden Age (1870-1900). However, a year before the stock market crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression, he disappeared, reportedly falling off the plane.

On Independence Day in 1928, Alfred Loewenstein boarded a private plane and departed from Croydon Airport in England to return to Brussels, Belgium. It was a familiar trip for him, done quite often.

The sky was clear when Loewenstein got up to use the toilet, but then, according to records, he mistook the toilet exit for the back door of the plane and opened it, stepping out into the air.

Loewenstein’s pilot, mechanic and 4 passengers reportedly didn’t know what had happened until his secretary discovered the back door was smashed in the wind. But was it an accident or a murder? The mystery of what really happened to Alfred Loewenstein on the fateful flight remains unsolved.

Born on March 11, 1877, Alfred Loewenstein came from a family of bankers with a worldly brooch lineage. With his father’s backing, he founded the Belgium-based banking and finance group, Société Internationale d’Énergie Hydro-Électrique, which targets developing countries around the globe.

By supplying power plants to third-world countries, Loewenstein made a lot of money. He invested in synthetic silk before they skyrocketed. With a passion for aviation and hundreds of flights, Loewenstein is known as the “flight financier” of Belgium.

When the First World War broke out, Loewenstein was one of the most powerful men in Europe. He once offered $50 million without interest to the government to buy all of the country’s debt himself.

By the mid-1920s, Loewenstein’s reputation was so popular that he was consulted by many heads of state and was awarded the highest Medal of Honor by the British government.

But he also had many enemies. In 1926, he founded International Holdings and Investments, which raised huge amounts of capital from wealthy investors. By 1928, these investors wanted some profit from their money and were trying to take it back from Loewenstein.

His fateful flight from the United States to Brussels departed at 6 p.m. on July 4, 1928, a beautiful day with very few clouds. The pilot assured that it would be a smooth flight.

There were a total of six people on board, in addition to Alfred Loewenstein. The pilot stands by the door of the plane as passengers and crew board the plane. Others in the cabin include a servant, a secretary and 2 female stenographers.

Two mechanics in the air chamber and only one window connected it to the rest of the aircraft. When the pilot took off, the 2 mechanics did not have direct access to the cabin. The Fokker FVII was a small monoplane that in a few minutes reached an altitude of 1,200 meters.

At the back of the cabin there is a windowless door, which leads to a small toilet. This room also has an exterior door, marked EXIT- Clear Exit. It took two very strong men to open it in mid-air, due to the high air pressure and the very heavy door.

As the plane flew over the English Channel, the billionaire went to the lavatory compartment in the back. According to the male servant’s later testimony, 10 minutes passed and the boss still did not return to his seat. He was nervous and knocked on the toilet door, but the air was completely quiet.

Worried that Loewenstein might have fallen ill, he was forced to open the door. The toilet is empty. Alfred Loewenstein has disappeared through thin air.

The plane was supposed to be diverted to the nearest runway in St Inglevert, France, to alert the coast guard of Mr Loewenstein’s disappearance. Instead, the pilot landed the plane on a deserted beach, which was used for training by a local military unit.

Initially, when the 6 of them were questioned, they all behaved particularly strangely, evading military questions for half an hour until finally admitting that they had lost Alfred Loewenstein somewhere in the sky. Authorities did not arrest anyone and even allowed the plane to resume its flight.

Loewenstein’s body was finally found near Boulogne, France, on July 19, more than two weeks after he went missing. His identity was confirmed through an expensive wristwatch made specifically for the billionaire.

An autopsy revealed that he had a partial fracture of his skull and some broken bones. Forensic scientists concluded that he was still alive when he fell into the water.

His death is believed to have been an accident. However, there are still many theories that he was killed on the orders of his heirs or committed suicide before his empire collapsed.

“Even if Loewenstein had indeed lost a few tens of millions of francs, he would have no reason to commit suicide. He can always make a hundred times that amount,” his friends suspected.

The mystery of the death of the noise remains unsolved, although there are many theories. Some say that the absent-minded Loewenstein accidentally opened the wrong door and fell to the ground to his death. This is the most unlikely, as the plane does not allow the doors to be opened during flight.

Loewenstein, the third-richest billionaire on the planet of his time, controlled rubber plantations in Congo, coal production facilities in Germany, and was a major shareholder in Belgium’s railway system. Track: All that interesting

A more plausible and sinister explanation is that Loewenstein was thrown off the plane by his servant and male secretary, possibly on the orders of Loewenstein’s wife, Madeleine. Close circles of the billionaire’s family are rumored to have had a very cold relationship with her husband and the only thing that keeps her from leaving her husband is her huge fortune.

Most suspiciously, the other six people on board the plane have never been questioned or investigated.

One theory as to why the Fokker plane landed on a deserted beach was for the six men to replace a new plane door that had been prepared on the plane. And the old door was thrown by them with the ill-fated owner in the air.

This appears to be consistent with the testimony of a French fisherman who lived in the area where Loewenstein’s body was found. The fisherman said he saw something “like an umbrella” fall from the sky at the time. This “parachute” is most likely the back door of the plane.

The fate of the billionaire who lived a violent life ended quite tragically, so much so that the body was placed in an unmarked grave. Even his wife did not appear at the funeral.

Sadly, his son Robert later shot and killed one of his servants for undisclosed reasons. He eventually died in a plane crash in 1941.