AIRSHIP DISASTER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 151, 7 April 1933, Page 5

AIRSHIP DISASTER.

VERY FIERCE GUST OF WIND. DAMAGE TO THE GIRDERS. (United Press Association—Copyright). (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) WASHINGTON, April 6. A sudden and very sharp gust of wind, more severe than any other lie had ever experienced, was given by Lieutenant-Commander Wiley, of the airship Akron, in on official report today to the Navy Department,-as the apparent cause of the disaster. In a statement to the Secretary of the Navy (Mr Swanson) in which two other survivors collaborated, Commander Wiley said: “The gust'struck the ship, as it was fighting the storm off the coast of New Jersey at 12.30 a.m. on Tuesday. I noted immediately that the lower rudder control rope had carried away, and reported it to the captain.” Deal (boatswain’s mate) reported that as he la3 r in his bunk on the right side of the ship he saw two girders above the corridor bend and buckle, and he noted as he ran forward that the control lines in that vicinity appeared to be slack hut not broken. It is difficult to synchronise accuratelj- these observations in the control car but apparently the damage to the girders occurred after the severe gust struck the ship and after the ship had begun its last descent, practically out of control, and which terminated hv the ship striking the water, with consequent major structural damage. Lieutenant Commander Wiley said he was submerged in tl]e control car by ivater coming in the window and was then carried out of the window. He sought to reach the airship by swimming, as it was silhouetted in the lightning flashes. The airship, however, was drifting away rapidly at about 500 yards. “I could see the ship entirely on the water, broken in two or three places and submerged about one-third of hoi diameter, with the how for a length of about 200 feet inclined in the air at an angle of about, 30 degrees,” said Commander Wiley. “I saw several men in the water and heard their cries. None were close to me.” Commander Wiley clung to. a boaid and was hauled aboard.the oil tanker Phoebus after being in Hie water between 30 minutes and an hour. THE KING'S SYMPATHY. LONDON, April o. The King has sent a telegram to President Roosevelt expressing liis and. Britain’s sympathy with the families of the Akron disaster. —British Official Wireless.