FORTY-SIX DEAD.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1921, Page 5

FORTY-SIX DEAD.

THE AIRSHIP DISASTER. SEARCHING FOR BODIES. PATHETIC SCENES. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received August 26, 5.5 p.m. London, August 25. Official: The crew of the airship R3B, which exploded and collapsed over Hull, numbered 51, and the death roll is 46. The search for the dead was continued all day long by tugs and launches furnished with huge sweeps. No further bodies were discovered. The task of the searchers was hampered by high tides. Pathetic figures among the crowd watching the search were two Englsh widows of American airmen. One, carrying a six-weeks-old baby girl, refuses to believe that her husband is dead.

A VIOLENT CRASH. STORY OF THE COMMANDER. STRUCTURAL WEAKNESS. London, August 25. Intertdewed in hospital, Lieutenant Wann, who is suffering from injuries to bis head and eyes and severe burns and bruises op the body, said that he was in sole control of the vessel in the fore-car. He bad just passed over Hull when a violent crack was felt, the fore-car falling and then rising at a high angle. He pulled over the water ballast to level the keel, and then a terrific explosion occurred, which must have killed many of the crew. He did not notice any fire preceding the explosion. The airship had done a full trial, and he slowed down from GO to 50 knots before the explosion. The snapping was due to some structural weakness. The whole thing happened in five seconds. He denied turning the ship over the river in order to avoid the city. She was running perfectly over the city, and the accident happened over the river.

He went down with the ship until close to the water, when he jumped and was caught in the wreckage and pinned down there for 15 minutes. He did not know how he was rescued, as he was unconscious and woke to find himself in hospital.

Wicks, the wireless man on the airship, gallantly remained on duty, till he was burned to death. He actually wirelessed Howden that the ship’s back was broken and she was on fire and falling. The King sent c message to Sir 11. M. Trenchard, stating that he was shocked and grieved to hear of the terrible disaster resulting in the loss of many valuably lives, American and British, with whose relatives he deeply sympathised.

NO BODIES RECOVERED. DANGERS IN SEARCHING. PREVIOUS TROUBLE ON AIRSHIP. Received August 2G, 8.15 pjn. ' ' London, August 25. i Au American member of the crew of R3B, who was not on board at the time of the accident, states that on a previous trial a girder broke and others buckled at practically the same spot where the fa'al break occurred. River craft fruitlessly searched tlie Humber all night for possible survivors or bodies. The pilots of the Humber Conservancy Board heroically took tugs through masses of blazing wreckage while -conducting the search.

The authorities report that the remains of the airship cannot be salvaged, being choked with mud deposited by the tides. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

A REMARKABLE ESCAPE. DROP IN A PARACHUTE. A THRILLING DESCENT.

Received August 26, 8.40 pjn. London. August 25. Bateman, a survivor from R3B, interviewed, said that a quarter of an hour before the accident the airship was tested at full speed, and everything seemed all right-. He added: “I was then told to take observations in connection, with a special control test. Major Pritchard said the controls were going to be moved fairly rapidly in order tu demonstrate the air-worthiness of the ship to cross the Atlantic. When the disaster occurred my feelings were that the ship was shaken three or four times laterally and a few times longitudinally, and when the explosions followed I knew we were doomed.

“I was thrown into the cockpit, but a parachute was handy, there being one for each man. 1 jumped out from the ship's .side, but the parachute rope became caught in the wires. I hung in mid-air from the parachute while the airship dropped, and in that position I fell with the tail of the airship to the water. The fall dazed me, and when I recovered consciousness I found myself on a sandbank with Potter, who was with me in the cockpit, and Walker, who was in one of the fins.”— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

EFFECT OF THE DISASTER. NO CRITERION OF STABILITY. Received August 26, 2.50 p.m. London, August 25. Mr. A. H. Ashbolt (Agent-General for Tasmania, who is the author of one of the Imperial airship schemes), in an interview with the Australian Press Association, pointed out that the accident had no bearing whatever on commercial ail-ships, because R3B was designed for war purposes only, and therefore the lightest possible framework was used, with a view to rising to the greatest possible height, which is one of the chief desiderata in war-time. On the other hand, had she been designed for commercial purposes the chief object would have been safety, and therefore the framework would have been thirty to forty hundredweight heavier.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.