SHENANDOAH DISASTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19216, 4 January 1926, Page 8

SHENANDOAH DISASTER.

"PART OF THE PRICE." NAVY ABSOLVED FROM BLAME VELOCITY Of' AIR CURRENTS. By Telegraph—Press Association— "Copyright (Eecaivcd 6.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. ■WASHINGTON', Jan. 1. The Court of Inquiry which has inquired into tho circumstances of tho wreck of tho United States airship Shenandoah in September last has issued its report. The CoTjri absolves the Navy Department from all blame, declaring that the destruction of the Shenandoah was duo principally to external forces arising from tho high velocity of air currents. Tho Court says that it is unable to determine whether the prior minor damage duo to gas pressure was a determining factor, but it was stated that the Shen&ndoah was sound in design and construction when she was built, and that deterioration of tho structural material was not responsible for tho disaster. The Court found that Commander Lansdown expressed no opposition or reluctance to tho flight, as claimed by his widow. The report pronounces that the disaster was part of the price which inevitably must be paid in tho development of any new hazardous art. The flight of the ill-fated Shenandoah over Ohio, it was asserted by Mrs. Lansdowne, was made against tho wishes of Commander, Lansdowne on an order from Washington to gratify politicians' desire for a spectacle for a Btring of country fairs. Mrs. Lansdowne declared that hex husband had sought for weeks -for a cancellation of tho order, knowing, as a native of Ohio, the danger of electrical storms at this period, but that tha Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Curtis Wilbur, insisted on tho order being carried out. Mr. Wilbur, however, gave tho statement a denial, saying that Commander Lansdowne was allowed to choose his own time.