BALLOON ACCIDENT

Hokitika Guardian, 5 August 1926, Page 2

BALLOON ACCIDENT

J Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.]

, LONDON, August 4. Hie balloon bad made several successful ascents. More than four thousand people were watching it. Two married couples entered the basket. for the fateful trip. In one case both the husband and wife were killed, in the other case, the wife was fatally injured, and husband seriously injured. Several accounts say the Pilot and two of the passengers jumped out while tlie basket was crashing. The other two aboard were seen to be desperately clutching the sides. A number of the women spectators fainted and had to he carried away. Hundreds of people rushed /across the field to the spot where the basket fell. Pilot Willows was discovered underneath, with his neck broken. A woman'and a man were also found to be dead. The two others were living, and they were taken to the hospital, where the woman died.

The balloon gasbag descended five and a-lialf miles away. Pilot Willows took up thousands of people in a kite balloon at Wembley. LONDON. August 4.

Bv this balloon accident. Britain lias lost one of its pioneers of aviation, pilot captain E. T. Willows, who played a leading part in aeronautical development from ISOo till the end of the war, particularly in relation to airships and kite balloons. In 1905, when aged only nineteen, lie built a tiny airship, driven by a motor-cycle engine.. Then in 1909 lie produced an airship in winch he flow at a speed of eighteen miles an hour. In 1910 Willows flew over .London and circled St. Paul’s. Later, with a slightly larger airship, he crossed the . English Channel for the first time in such craft: Til 1912 lie built an instructional airship for the Navy. During the war Captain Willows, at the order of Lord Fisher, produced the first “ blimp.” that is, a captive balloon, which originally was intended to serve ns an air scout for the detection of submarines. Willows also was engaged in the army with kite balloons and on a vsystem of 'balloon nets or aprons, used against the aeroplane raiders, in which he displayed great inventiveness.