ORIGIN OF FIRE ON BRITISH AIR LINER

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 11085, 7 April 1933, Page 3

ORIGIN OF FIRE ON BRITISH AIR LINER

Petrol Tank Did Not Explode EXAMINATION BY EXPERTS London. April 5.

Mesages from Brussels state that the aviation experts who examined the debris of the Imperial Airways liner City of Liverpool which crashed near Dixmude, Flanders, on March 2S with the loss of 15 lives, have decided that the petrol tank did not explode. The passenger cabin, the experts consider, was on fire before the aeroplane struck the ground. Nothing abnormal was discovered in the condition of the engines.

The Belgian experts, after completing their examination, decided that the lire was started in the passengers' lavatory, which is in the tail of the machine. This is shown by the fact that the lavatory door was burnt on the inside only. They are convinced that Albert Voss, of Manchester, was in the lavatory, as he leapt through the side door adjacent to it. On the last two nights Mr Voss and Air Dearden (also a victim of the disaster) were in Brussels, they spent their time at cabarets entertaining women. Voss told one girl she would soon see a lot about him in the newspapers. The men were drinking heavily.

The Manchester correspondent of the Daily Express states that. was a smuggler of heavily dutiable goods in connection with his dental business. His liabilities in Britain are estimated at £6OOO, and his debts abroad amount to many thousands of pounds.