LOSS OF THE AKRON

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18066, 18 April 1933, Page 9

LOSS OF THE AKRON

STORY FROM PITTSBURG OFFICER’S EXPERIENCE Lieut.-Commander Herbert Victor Wiley recently broadcast to the world through the American short-wave transmitting station KDKA at Pittsburg' a statement concerning his experiences aboard the ill-fated dirigible, reports the Melbourne Ago. Ilis statement was within a few hours of ids arrival at New York on tho freighter Phoebus. He explained that early in Hie evening the Akron was flying over Pittsburgh at a height of 1600 ft. Conditions were stormy, and visibility was so poor that the crew had only occasional glimpses of the lights of the city through the clouds. But they were fully aware of their longitudinal position. After flying on to Philadelphia the airship way turned west and flown about 25 miles out sea. The storm became generally worse and electrical in character, lightning flashes playing all around the Akron. Just after midnight it was reported to Lieut.-Commander Wiley that altitude was rapidly being lost. In a few seconds the altimeter recorded a drop from 1600 ft to 800 ft. Ballast was thrown out. and no trouble was experienced in regaining the original height. Several minutes later the Akron was in the nucleus of the storm, and was violently tossed sideways by a gust that struck its starboard side. The upper rudder control wires carried away, and again the airship fell to 800 ft. An endeavor was made to navigate it: by the lower rudder, hut the added strain on the controls was too great, and they also broke. Immediately the order was given for the whole crew to go to landing stations so that none of the members would be caught sleeping in their bunks. The descent could not be checked and the next altitude reading was called at 300 ft. The engine rooms were signalled to stop, and the crew warned to await the crash. Almost immediately tho ship struck the water. Lieut.-Commander Wiley said that lie was standing near an open window of the control cabin at the time, and was swept across the cabin and out through a window on the opposite side by water. In the lightning he could see the Akron being blown from the placo where it first struck the water. Men were all round him swimming, hut lie could not do anything to help them. The Akron began to sink stern first. After he had been for what he thought was nearly an hour in the water he saw the lights of the Phoebus loom out of thg storm, and he was picked up exhausted. The chief wireless operator was also rescued, but lie died soon after he had been taken aboard. Erwin and Deal were the only others the Phoebus could find. The station announcer remarked that for a long time engineers in the United States had predicted a disaster to the Akron, but Rear-Admiral Moffett had always argued that it was the safest airship in the world. He wrote an article to this effect in an American aeronautical magazine several months ago.