HORRIBLY SUDDEN DISASTER

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 49, 26 August 1921, Page 7

HORRIBLY SUDDEN DISASTER

LONDON, 24th August.

R3B, with her silver coat glistening in the 3un, was. sailing above Hull, apparently in perfect safety, at a height of 1000 feet, the. whole city looking , on. The spectators J"c6mirLehte(|. Joii"tKe l beau- l! tiful appearance of the airship, engineers observing that the engines were firing very evenly. The airship then disappeared '"in a cloud.: ■ When it emerged the spectators were horrified to see it break in two portions: Both descended slowly, the nose portion, which was the largest, coming down first. As it did so a mass, believed to be an engine and one of the gondolas, fell from the airship. Two terrific reports followed. The foremtfst portion of tho craft-landed on a sandbank, and the rear part half a mile away in the Humbpr.

Thousands of people rushed to a pier near the spot where the wreckage lay. Tugs and small boats hurried to assistance, despite the fact that fragments of the airship were burning on the sandbank and floating in the- water, but they were only able to pick up two survivors —Might-Lieutenant Warm, and Bateman, a youth, who was able^to walk to an ambulance after a tug had landed him.

838 developed certain structural weaknesses a few weeks-ago, and the frame was strengthened. She went.for an extended trial from Howden last night, and sent a wireless message that the trial was most successful.

It was intended that the airship should land at Pulham, Norfolk, but a thunderstorm raged there for two hours, and a wireless message was sent ordering her to wait, owing to the heavy .clouda. At 7 o'clock this morning E3B was reported flying over Howden, and at 1.50 p.m. she was east of the Wash, proceeding to Pulham. The vessel had been in the air for. 35 hours when she approached Hull. Rudder tests were beingl carried out at the time of the disaster. Batemaa, who was saved, was in the tail of the ship taking photographs of the rudder tests.

An eye-witness on the ground Bays that when it was apparent that the ship was cracking up in the middle, her engines were working at a terrific speed: He believes th»*. Lieutenant Warm, realising the danger, put on the utmost speed in order to get clear of the city. The_ general opinion is that the commander's skilful navigation alone pre. vented the ship falling in the centre of the city. (This view is contradicted in Lieutenant Warm's statement.) As it was, the force, of the explosion wrecked windows and shop fronts in the main streets. Many people on the quays .were thrown to the ground.

T'n addition to Lieutenant Warm and Bfitpman, three Americans, who took to the parachutes, were rescued from the Hnmber. They .are: I. Davies, W. Porter, and 0. Walker. Tho two latter were uninjured. Davies was sent to the hospital. Lieutenant Little was taken from the ' debris alive, but succumbed while being conveyed to the hospital. It is possible that some bodies are inside the envelope floating in the river, but there is no chance of their being alive.