From The Times: September 25, 1923
The balloon race for the Gordon Bennett Cup has resulted, up to the time of writing, in the deaths of five of the aeronauts. The destruction of a Spanish and a Swiss balloon, with the loss of three pilots, has already been reported. This morning news reached Brussels that the American balloon US Army S8 – which cut the suspension network of a Belgian balloon in leaving the ground – was struck by lightning and crashed to earth at Nistelrode. The pilot, Lieutenant Olmstead, and the assistant pilot, Lieutenant Choplaw, were killed instantly.
The balloon Fernande II, piloted by the Frenchman G Blanchet, was compelled to land last night at Lille St Pierre, near Antwerp. Gomez, the pilot of
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