OFFICIAL VIEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 237, 7 October 1930, Page 7

OFFICIAL VIEW.

CAUTION URGED. Judgment Should Await Results Of Inquiries. MANY REASONS ADVANCED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 1 p.m.) RUGBY, October 6. The personal impressions of the survivors of RlOl are of course subject to error caused by the emotion of the moment and any considered opinion of the cause and circumstances of the disaster can only be formed when all the evidence has been collected and examined. Air Chief Marshal Sir John Salmond and the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Commodore Holt, flew to France early yesterday morning and they were followed by an investigation party of seven experts, including Squadron-Leader Booth, captain of the RIOO. A preliminary meeting of experts was held on the scene of the disaster last night and instructions were given by a joint commission of French and English experts to begin collecting evidence to-day. After last night's meeting an official statement was issued as follows: The cause of the accident cannot be asceitained until the evidence has been sifted, but there is every reason to suppose that no explosion occurred until the airship j struck the ground." A full public inquiry into the loss of the airship will be held in England in due course. The announcement that an explosion occurred after the vessel struck the ground is borne out by the theoiies advanced by those who have made a preliminary examination of the wreckage. Some Possibilities. When the airship crashed, smashing or tearing , off an engine car, a control car, or of any important part of her accommodation, it would, it is pointed out, break the electrical connections of her' lighting and produce short circuits which would produce flashes or sparks. Such flashes may have ignited the small supply of petrol carried for starting the engines, and would be quite enough to start the fire which consumed the ship. Alternatively these sparks may have occurred in the stream of hydrogen caused by the damage to the hull slid the gas bags, and thus caused the explosion. A still simpler cxglanation is also possible. As the engine cars struck the "round, they would be forced into the envelope of tie ship, which collapsed on them, and the hot exhausts of the engine would probably be brought into contact with the gas bags. Such a fire, once started, would in a few seconds sweep the ship from end to end, for, although the KIOI was relatively safe from fuel fires, she carried 5,050,000 cubic feet of hydrogen. Warm tributes aro paid by newspapers to the work done for the developinent of airships by the distinguished passengers and officers who have been killed, and the loss of the experience of members of the crew is_ a heavy blow. Most newspapers emphasise that'the disaster should not be allowed to check the general progress of aviation. What happens to airships has no conceivable bearing on what may happen to other types of aircraft, nor doe? the disaster to one type of airship affect the prospects of an airship of another

typo unless, indeed, the disaster be due to some feature common to both or to some facts which reflect fundamentally upon the utility or safety of -airships generally. - ' . Many Startling Rumours. As may bo expected there are startling rumours on the cause of the RlOl disaster in answer to the question, "How did it happen?" which al! who would ask must await the results of the official investigations at present proceeding.

A somewhat alarming report was o-iven great publicity to-day when United States Press credited Air Commodore Holt with the statement by him already published, that the structure broke. Commodore Holt denied this in an interview and the Air Ministry has supplemented his denial. Nevertheless the British United Press correspondent reasserts the truth of the statement. He recalls significantly Sunday's report that a piece of the airship was picked up a mile from the scene of the crash. Reliable reports, furthermore, indicate that a preliminary examination of the wreckage shows that the structure was actually broken at the top and, amidships. It is impossible to say yet whether tffis caused the crash or developed as the result of it. Although there is considerable conflict of testimony the weight of evidence thus far favours the outbreak of fire after the crash.