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AIR DISASTER “Very Likely Due To DR. ECKENER’S VIEW Germany Deeply Shocked By News (Received May 8. 12.30 a.m.) Berlin, May 7. Dr. Hugo Eckener, designer of the Hindenburg, is hastening to Berlin from Vienna. He says that one thing is clear —the necessity for using helium, which he always has advocated. Dr. Eckener, who will probably join the inquiry commission, interviewed on the train, ruled out the lightning theory, as the Hindenburg was equipvied with preventive devices. Very likely the disaster was due to sabotage, he declared. He repeatedly had received anonymous threatening letters warning him that the Hindenburg would not land at Lakehurst. It is recalled that much of the scrap metal from the RlOl was embodied in the Hindenburg’s frame. A commission of inquiry is leaving for America immediately. The whole of Germany was deeply shocked, especially as Captain Preuss previously had senj; a wireless message stating that the voyage had ended. ENGLISH COMMENT Faith in Airships Not Shaken SIR HUBERT WILKINS (Received May 8. 12.30 a.m.) London, May 7. The noted Australian explorer, Sir Hubert Wilkins, in an interview, stated that he spent a month on the Hindenburg during and after her trials, and got to know intimately most of the crew. He was terribly shocked at the sews pf the disaster, and said he was glad Captain Preuss and Captain Lehmann were saved. They would have been a great loss to the science of airship construction when experts could ill be spared. His faith in airships was unshaken, he declared, but he thought that experience ought to be gained in the development of smaller types, as in the case of aeroplanes, before placing confidence in the safety of larger dirigibles. Commander Sir Dennistoun Burney, designer of- the British airship RlOO, said; “Unless we can get away from hydrogen, I will find it difficult to retain my confidence in the future 1 of airships.’’ Seventy-five per cent, of the insurance on the Hindenburg is placed in London, but it is well spread.
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Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 190, 8 May 1937, Page 16
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338LATE NEWS Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 190, 8 May 1937, Page 16
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