ZEPPELIN L2.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 42, 20 October 1913, Page 5

ZEPPELIN L2.

SERIES OF EXPLOSIONS.

GHASTLY SCENES. [By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] Times— Sydney Sun Special Carles • Berlin, October 19. The Zeppelin was sailing beautifully when a battalion of sappers on jan adjacent -highway were alarmed by a teriffic explosion. Windows were broken a thousand feet • away. r J lie airship was a sheet of flames and the blazing mass was [dunging to the earth before the sappers reached her. The destruction was complete, and the airship was a smoking pile of aluminium spars. The grey canvas envelope burst into thousands of fragments resembling Yorkshire pudding and the benzine tanks were flaming madly. Baron Von Bleuen was dragged out alive, shrieking in agony. He pleaded his rescuers to kill him. Souvenir hunters were soon picking up fragments of the twisted aluminium and pieces of the envelope. The navy is-iiow without a Zeppelin. Lieutenant Fryherg was incinerated in the wreckage of the aeroplane. The airship was makjng ap altitude test, and carried a heavier crew than usual, ’when at GOO feet a tongue of flame enveloped the structure with the rapidity of lightning, followed by i. mighty detonation. The envelope was scattered into thousands of -blazing fragments which fluttered earthwards. For a moment' the framework stood out against the sky. and then the ghastly tangle fell head downwards. There was a second explosion when the car was 130 feet from the ground, and a third as it struck the earth. Men were seen writhing in agony and screaming. The helpers, regardless of burns, cut through the scorching metal. Four were- drawn out alive but quickly died. The human remains amongst the wreckage made a horrible spectacle, some of the beads and limbs being cut off by the framework.

LARGEST EVER BUILT.

[United Press Association.! Berlin, October 19

The destroyed airship was the largest- yet constructed at the Zeppelin works. It was 525 feet long, 54 feel in diameter and had a cubic capacity :pf 94.3j000 feet and 1 a carrying capacity of twenty-five tons' • i A*. 5 -ft i s . !

i a »,v ' a. > LAST SURVIVOR SUCCUMBS.

Berlin, October 18. Von Bleuen, the sole survivor o die accident, is dead. Rig eyes weiv literally burned out. The mangled bodies of twenty-seven victims were picked unr

INCOMBUSTIBLE GAS,

London, October ‘l9

In view of airship disasters,! tin attention of' the National Physical Laboratory has been cajled to the urgency of discovering an incombustible gas. i

THE KAISER’S SYMPATHY.

Berlin, October 18,

The Kaiser, in a sympathetic tele->-ram; hopes that the “navy’s affliction will act as a spur towards the development of the airship as a reliable weapon of war.”