BALLOON DISASTER

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 5 August 1926, Page 5

BALLOON DISASTER

FOUR PERSONS KILLED.

BASKET FALLS 60 FEET,

ACCIDENT AT FLOWER SHOW

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPY EIGHT. LONDON, Aug. 3.

Captive balloon trips were proceeding successfully at Kemps ton flower show, near when the trailing rope became entangled with the trees. A well-meaning bystander, rushing np, pulled the rope (instead of allowing an official to release the slack), with the result that the netting parted from the ballast.

The envelope sailed up and tbe> basket fell GO feet, killing three passengers and the pilot. One victim of the balloon, disaster still lives, though seriously injured. Pilot E. T. \\ j 1 lows and a male and female passenger were killed. The accident was witnessed by \a huge crowd. The balloon made several trips before the one which ended so disastrously. The balloon had made several successful ascents which more than four thousand people wet© watching. Two married couples entered the basket for the fatal trip. In one case husband and wife were killed. In the other ease, the wife was fatally injured and, the husband seriously injured. Several accounts say that the pilot and two passengers jumped out while the basket was crashing, and that the other two were seen desperately clutching the sides. A number of women .spectators fa-in tPd and had to be carried away. Hundreds rushed across the field, to the .spot where the basket fell. Willows was discovered beneath with his neck broken. A woman and a man were aho dead. The two others who were living were taken to the hospital, where the woman died.

The gasbag descended five and, a. half miles' away.Willows took up thousands in the kite balloon at Wembley, and by this balloon accident England has lost one of its pioneers of aviation. Pilot Captain E. T. Wil'ows played at leading part in aeronautical development from 1905 until the end of the war. particularly in relation to airships and kite 'balloons. In 1905, when aged 19, he built a tiny airship driven by a .motor-cycle engine. In 1909 he produced an airship which flew' at IS miles an hour. In. 1910 he flew- over London and circled Saint Paul's. Later, with a. slightly larger airship, he, crossed theEnglish Channel for the- first time in such, craft. In 1912 he built an instructional airship for tlie navv. During the war, Captain Willows, at the order of Lord Fisher, produced the, first .blimp dash captive balloon, originally intended to serve as an air scout for the detection of submarines.

Captain Willows also engaged in the army with kite balloons and, in the system of balloon nets or aprons against aeroplane raiders, in which lie displayed great inventiveness.

DEATH OF REMAINING SURVIVOR.

Received 11.20 a.m. to-day. LONDON. Aug v 4. The remaining survivor of the Kem-p----ston balloon disaster has died. His wife was among those killed yesterday. —(Mentor.