HOW THE R101 MET DISASTER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 65, 18 March 1931, Page 1

HOW THE RlOl MET DISASTER.

TORN FABRIC WAS THE CAUSE OF GAS ESCAPE. LONDON, March 17. The airship RlOl met disaster owing to the fabric being torn in the storm, states the “ Daily Herald ” in an exclusive revelation of the conclusions of the Court of Inquiry into the disaster, whose report is in the printer's hands and will be published within a few weeks. The Court, it is understood, will exonerate Lord Thomson and the Air Ministry from blame, and will show that Flight-Lieutenant Irwin, commander of the airship, did everything in his power to avert the disaster. While absolute certainty concerning the cause will never be reached, the disaster is attributable to the loss of gas from the front bags due to the storm and a tear in the upper cover. The Court is believed to be satisfied, that there was no defect in the structure.

It is likely to be stated that there was a lack of adequate preliminary tests, but the flight itself to India was meant as a test under tropical conditions.

Flight-Lieutenant Irwin has been vindicated on the ground that he managed to right the ship after the first steep dive, and, when he found the craft going into the second dive, did his utmost to avert the disaster by shutting off each engine separately.

RlOl left Cardington at 7.36 p.m. on October 4 on a flight to India. At 1.50 a.m. on the following morning she reported her position north of Beauvais, 40 miles north of Paris. Within fifteen minutes the huge airship was a mass of blazing wreckage, colliding with a

hill. Of the fifty-four persons on board, forty-six were killed, and two others died from terrible injuries. Those lost included Lord Thomson, Sir Sefton Brancker and Colonel Richmond, her designer.