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The Red Baron flying
ace, right, and his brother Lothar stand by a plane similar
to the ones flown in WWI.
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Reinvestigating
the
Red Baron's Death
By Cheri Ghan
MU researcher finds prior injury
actually led to von Richthofen’s demise.
Since he was shot down and killed in 1918,
much speculation has been made of who shot down the German World
War I flying ace dubbed the Red Baron. A team of researchers,
including a University of Missouri-Columbia neuropsychologist,
found that Baron Manfred von Richthofen never would have put himself
in the position to be killed that day had he not suffered a severe
head injury nine months earlier. The results will be published
this fall in the international journal Human
Factors and Aerospace Safety.
By comparing accounts of von Richthofen’s
injury and medical records, MU Health
Psychology Clinical Associate Professor Daniel Orme and retired
neuropsychologist Thomas L. Hyatt of Cincinnati have concluded
the Baron exhibited classic signs of traumatic brain injury, including
personality and cognitive changes, leading to errors in judgment
that made him a sitting target in what amounted to a shooting
gallery behind British lines.
After suffering the head wound on July 6,
1917, Orme says von Richthofen was disinhibited, a common consequence
of a head injury, and did things he never would have before. Among
those, he laid his head on a dining table in a restaurant, displaying
the open wound in his scalp. The Baron also exhibited “target
fixation” the day he was shot down, locking a fleeing British
pilot in his sights and pursuing him into British territory at
tree line level, making himself an easy target to his enemy. Research
has found frontal lobe injuries affect a person’s ability
to adapt behavior to changing situations. Orme also said research
indicates the Baron was more moody after suffering the head injury,
another classic symptom of a traumatic brain injury.
The Red Baron suffered a head wound in 1917, which researchers
think led to his demise nine months later.
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“Why did he put himself in this position?
That’s the unique twist,” Orme said. “It is
a surprising thing that no one had connected the dots and arrived
at this conclusion up to this point. He clearly should not have
been flying. Perhaps credit for his being shot down should have
been given to that machine gunner nine months before whose lucky
shot creased the Baron’s skull.”
Orme and Hyatt have titled their research
“Baron Manfred von Richthofen – DNIF,” playing
upon the United States Air Force designation for pilots which
means “duties not to include flying.” Orme, a retired
Air Force officer who evaluated aviators for fitness to return
to flying following head trauma or neurological illnesses that
affect mental skills, said even with 80 “kills,” the
Red Baron would not have been allowed back in a cockpit under
today’s standards.
“DNIF is the last thing any pilot wants
to hear,” Orme said. “His friends knew he was different,
his mother complained he was different, even he complained he
was different. They didn’t have the regulations we do now
and there were loopholes around what they had. However, he never
should have been allowed back in that plane.”
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Last Update:
July 2, 2008
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