TEST OF RUDDER CONTROLS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 50, 27 August 1921, Page 5

TEST OF RUDDER CONTROLS

BATEMAN'S ATTEMPT TO USE

PARACHUTE.

(AUSTRALIAN - HSW ZBAIAND CABLI ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 25th August.

Mr. Bateman (who, apart from the commander, Lieutenant Wann_, was the only British survivor of the airship disaster) said, in an interview, that a quarter of an hour before the accident the airship was tested at full speed. Everything seemed all right. X "I was then told to take observations in connection ■with a special control, test. Major Pritchai'd said the controls were going ■to be moved fairly rapidly in order to •demonstrate the airworthiness flf the ship to cross the Atlantic. Wiien the disaster occurred my feelings were .that the ship was shaken three or four times, laterally and a few times, longitudinally, and when the explosion followed I knew we were doomed. I was thrown into' the cockpit, but a parachute was handy. There was one for each man. I jumped out from the ship's side, but the parachute rope became' caught in the wires. ■I hung in mid-air from the parachute while the airship dropped. In that' position I fell with the tail of the ship to the water. . The fall dazed me. When I'recovered consciousness I found my-/ self' on a sand-bank with Potter, who was with me in the epekpitj and Walker, who was in one of the fins." "