LOSS OF DIRIGIBLE

Grey River Argus, 15 February 1935, Page 5

LOSS OF DIRIGIBLE

VIVID ACCOUNT Quick, Efficient Rescue (Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn.) (Received February 14 at 7.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, February 13. With the landing of the sunken naval dirigible Macon’s survivors at San Francisco, vivid stories were toM of the disaster. Commander Wiley’s account being most vivid, despite its terseness. He said that a short jar was felt and an inquiry developed the information that the wheel had slipped out of the elevator man's hand. The ship took a bow-up inclination, and the bow rose further despite every effort to prevent this, such as the dropping of ballast and of emergency fuel from the after part of the ship. The bow continued to rise rapidly. Then, right about face, the vessel began to drop from a, height of 4000 feet. It was descending at the rate of 300 feet per minute. This continu ed in spite of dropping all of the ballast and also endeavouring to drop the airship’s aeroplanes from the aeroplane hangar. As the descent con tinned, the order to abandon the ship was given at a height of* one thousand feet, and when the stern eventually hit the water with a jar, everyone was ordered out of the control car. Before the car was submerged every ; one jumped, and then made for the rubber lifeboats. S.O.S. signals were given for sonic time before this, and flares were also thrown out in the darkness. A momentary danger arose when the flares set afire the petrol that was floating on the sea, but this burnt out quickly. The rescue by the Navy vessels was quick and efficient. DROPPED. WASHINGTON, February 13. President Roosevelt has announced that he *will not recommend any expenditure of Federal funds on further lighter-than-air ships at this time, ialthough everyone should be careful not to overstate the importance of the Macon disaster in its relations to future aircraft development The President added that he did not think that a temporary abandonment of the dirigibles would injure the development of helium gas, since experiments promise many other uses for it.

ONLY GERMAN AIRSHIPS RELIABLE. LONDON, February 13. Sir Moore Brabazon said: Since the R.lOl disaster, I have abandoned faith in big airships. They are not things to be taken up in bad weather. The Zeppelin school of construction is successful, but everybody else is singularly unsuccessful. Everybody seems today to improve upon Eckner’s products. Why they fail, it is difficult to determine. RUGBY, February 13. The Under-Secretary for Air (Sir P. Sassoon) stated in the Commons that he understood that an order for the construction of a flying-boat suitable for use on the Bermuda-New York section of the projected trans-Atlantic air service, via the Azores and Bermuda, in conjunction with the PanAmerican Airways, had been placed by the Imperial Airways. Much ground organisation, including a new airport at. Bermuda, had to be done, and the permission of the Portuguese authorities to use the Azores had to be obtained. wi

Preparations are in hand to ensure that the necessary equipment will be available to keep pace with the formation of a new squadron of the Royal Air Force, already announced. Sir P. Sassoon, in the Commons, said that a substantial increase in the financial provision for the supply of aircraft and engines, which would be required in 1935, would be reflected in the estimates shortly to be presented. The Air Ministry is purchasing the Comet wherein Scott won the Melbourne race, for use in experimental research work.