TRAGIC ACCIDENT

Evening Star, Issue 21634, 1 February 1934, Page 9

TRAGIC ACCIDENT

SOVIET BALLOONISTS KILLED GONDOLA BECOMES DETACHED Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright, MOSCOW, January 31. (Received February I, at 11 a.m.) The crew of three of the balloon Sirius were killed when the gondola became detached. The bodies were found in the wreckage of the gondola at Potijsky, eight miles south' of Kadoshkino. Eye-w r itnesses declare that the balloon was falling when two explosions occurred, followed by a crash. The envelope was torn off. All the instruments were destroyed. The three bodies are to be buried in the Kremlin wall facing Red square. [Ascending unannounced at 5.40 in the morning, the Soviet gondola balloon, named Sirius, which was built at Osoaviakhim, with a crew of three, commanded by M. Ffdeosenko, beat the previous record of 20,266yd5. The crew achieved a height of 12.8 miles, from which they broadcast messages to M. Stalin -at the Communist Congress. The balloon carried an infra-red outfit, with which it was , hoped to establish records in distant photography. They began the descent at 9 o’clock in the morning, and expected to land at Kolomna, seventy miles from Moscow.]