GREAT AIRSHIP LOST

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 48, 25 August 1921, Page 7

GREAT AIRSHIP LOST

DISASTER ON TRIAL TRIP

HEAVY CASUALTIES.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPTMOHT.)

(AUSTRALIAN - NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received August 25, 10 a.m.)

LONDON, 24th August,

Tho biggest airship in the world 1, j 838, which was built in Britain for tho. United States Navy, and was about to be flown across the Atlantic, broke in halves and caught fire this afternoon" while making a trial trip over Hull. There were about fifty people on board, a.nd Jiiore wet* many casualties. Threeparachutes were seen to leave the air-

Thousands of peopl-e watched the airship cruising over the city at 5.40 p.m. A few minutes later the accident occurred, and the craft fell into the Humber River, belching a dense column of flames and blue smoke.' The effect of the explosion wrecked shop windows in the centre of the city. Two dead bodies have been landed, and a number of the injured art in hospital. / Lieutenant. Warm was in command of R3B, and Flight-Lieutenant Little was second in command, and Flight-Tjieulen-ant Montagu was the navigator. Among those on board were Commodore^ Maitland, who is the officer commanding all the British airships, Major Thomas, and twenty-one Americans, including Commander Maxfield and Lieutenant Coil, ■commander and second in command of the American crew for the Atlantic flight. Tho loss will fall on Britain. ' It is reported that there are six survivors. Bateman, one of the survivors, states that the airship took ] a sharp turn to the right from the centre of the hull, and another survivor says that one of the main girders failed to take tho strain. Bateman hung'orl. to the rear portion, and alighted in the water safely. Commander Warm was saved uninjured.