EYE-WITNESS'S ACCOUNTS

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

EYE-WITNESS'S ACCOUNTS

CITY'S NARROW ESCAPE,

.LONDON, 24th August. The Daily Telegraph \'» correspondent at Hull states that a? he watched the giant airship he thought her sylph-like appearance suggested a visitor from some fairy world. He said to a Mend: "It makes me want to cheer." A few moments laoer the airship's nose pointed down, and clouds of green-coloured vapour poured from her side. As the volume of vapour increased the airship appeared to bend or break in the middle. The rear portion detached itself and began to fall. As it fell bright red flames appeared. "I realised that tho airship that rode so proudly a moment earlier was on fire. • Two loud repoTts in quick successfcn told the amazed spectators that R3B had come to her doom. The stricken monster crumpled up. Some of her crew were to be seen descending in parachutes. It was all over in less than a minute. The effect on the spectators was stupefying. Many

women burst into tears. When '1 reached the pier the vessel which had been the aerial pride of the' world lay in the water a twisted mass of fabric and framework, wibh portions of its length burning for hundreds of .feet along the top of the water The only part bearing any resemblance to an airship was the stern, which ballooned to a considerable height."

The Daily Chronicle's correspondent says he was watching the airship as her long, graceful shape came out from a light summer cloud, -when suddenly it buckled and broke in two, and flames shot from the ship'a side with a loud explosion. When the mass fell headlong into the river many spectators were panic-stricken. But fi seemed that the navigating officer had had a few seconds' warning, and by a suorenie effort got clear of the city. This last thought of a man facing death averted an even more terrible disaster. Sergeant Busby, a member of the American Air Force, who was a spectator, told mo: 'I consider there was some fire ainidsliips. The airship collapsed in the centre when turning 1. It was God's mercy the disaster did not occur over the town."

The Hull correspondent of the Daily Express describes the explosion' as like those of immense rockets. When the material touched the water a huge column of flames and smoke went up. It seemed that nothing oi\ earth could live in such an inferno. Eiver pilots who first reached the sinking airship aay the fore end broke away forty seconds before the after part. They saw be4s and blankets dropping from her, but they fell into the other portion of the wreck, which was a mass of flames. They had to cut sections of the envelope open with jack-knives to "get the survivors out, but were unable to extricate the'dead. The correspondent continues r "The first man brought ashore was unconscious, but the second wag smoking a cigarette, none the worse except for a ducking. He said he had saved himself by climbing with the officers on to the rudder of the airship. This man was D vies, an American, who was picked up swimming in the river. When landed he walked through a thousand people, who cheered him to the echo-for his pluck. Interviewed later, Davies said: "We had a, terrible' time. It was all over in a minute. Many of the poor fellows had not a cat's chance. Some jumped overboard. I was one of the lucky ones."