AIRSHIP DISASTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 20 October 1913, Page 5

AIRSHIP DISASTER.

EXPLOSION ON AIRSHII\ THIRTY PERSONS KILLED. 'Times' —'Sydney Sun' Special Cables. (Received Last Night, 5.5 o'clock.) BERLIN, October 18. The destroyed airship was the largest ever constructed at the Zeppelin works. It was 525 feet long, and 54 feet in diameter, with a cubic capacity of 943,000 feet and a carrying capacity of twenty-five tons. A cable received on Saturday stated that the airship L2 exploded while in the air at Johaimisthal, at a height of three hundred metres. All aboard, numbering thirty, were killfed, including Commanders Behhische and Freyer, Captain Gluth, and several members of the Admiralty Commission. The L2 was the newest and finest Zeppelin. When she was a quarter of a mile from the shed and at a height of 540 ft, the spectators saw a tongue of flame shoot from the middle, the fire being due to an electric spark lighting some benzine. The 1 flames leapt along, and the noise of the balloonists' shouts were heard, these" being immediately followed by an explosion, which blew the envelope of the dirigible to threads. The flmisy aluminium steel being weighted down by three cars, the occupants and the motors fell like stones. Six of the occupants seated amidships were blown out. They ■ fell clear of th<? debris. The others were incinerated or suffocated. All happened in a few seconds. No trace of the cars is visible among the crumpled mass. The death-roll is twenty-seven. The victims include Herr Neumann and Herr Reitzer, Advisers to the Naval Construction Department, and Chief Engineer Bu«cb, of the Trial Board. With a view to showing unabated confidence in airships, the Hansa was ordered to fly over the scene of the disaster, The people loudly cheered her.

THE SOLE SURVIVOR. TERRIBLY MUTILATED. (Received Last Night, 5.5 o'clock.) BERLIN, October 18. Yon Bloven, the sole survivor of the accident, is dead. His eyes were literally burned out. The mangled bodies of twenty-six persons have been picked up. A TERRIBLE SPECTACLE. FINDING THE BODIES. (Received Last Night, 5.5 o'clock.) BERLIN, October 18. The airship was making an altitude tes£ and carried a heavier crew than usual. When at a height of 600 feet a tongue of flame enveloped the structure with the rapidity of lightning, followed by a mighty detonation, and thousands of blazing fragments fluttered earthwards. For a moment the framework stood I out against the sky, and then the ghastly tangle fell head downwards. The second explosion occurred when the car was at a height of 140 feet from the ground, and a third when she struck the earth. Men were seen writhing in agony and screaming aloud. The helpers, regardless of buans, cut through the scorching metal and four men were drawn out alive, but they quickly died. The human remains amongst the wreckage presented a horrible spectacle, some of the heads and limbs being cut off by the framework. INCOMBUSTIBLE GAS. . AN URGENTIcECESSITY. (Received Last Night, 5.5 o'clock ) LONDON, October 18. - In view of so many airship disasters the attention of the Nationa Physical Laboratory has been csnllet to the urgency of discovering an in combustible gas. ' KAISER'S SYMPATHY. (Receive*? Last Night, 5.5 o'clock.) BERLIN, October 18. The Kaiser forwarded a sympathe tic telegram, and hopes that th Navy's itiffliction will act as a spur t the development of the airs-ship as reßaWe weapon in war.