AIRSHIP'S FATAL PLUNGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 166, 15 July 1910, Page 5

AIRSHIP'S FATAL PLUNGE.

BURSTING OF THE ENVELOPE. _— FALL OP A THOUSAND FEET. I VICTIMS MANGLED. (By Cable.—Press association.—Copyright^ BERLIN, July 14. The log of the dirigible balloon Erbs- | loch, which collapsed near Cologne yesterday, the five occupants being killed, shows that she started at nine o'clock in the morning in a thick fog, the entry stating that the earth was invisible from the balloon, which at 9.15 was 280 metres high, and that she was going downwards i with a vertical rudder, i Experts believe that after the contents of the gasbag cooled in the clinging mist, 1 the airship rose, and in the sun's burning rays the gas expanded so rapidly that it was impossible to let enough air out of the air chamber in time to relieve the pressure, and the envelope thus burst. When it fell the rear part of the envelope was still full of gas, hence there was no explosion of petrol. The airship plunged 1000 ft bow downwards, the motor stiU working when it struck the ground. The victims were dreadfußy mangled, their skulls being shattered. The disentanglement of the corpses from the wreckage was difficult.