AIRSHIP DISASTER.

Wairarapa Age, 6 April 1933, Page 5

AIRSHIP DISASTER.

LOSS OF THE ILL-FATED AKRON. QUEEN OF THE WORLD’S DIRIGIBLES. Jver SEVENTY MEN MISSING. NEW YORK, April 4. The United. States naval dirigible the Akron, queen of the world’s airships, dropped into the sea off the New Jersey coast shortly after 1.30 on Tuesday morning, as a violent thunderstorm churned the skyways. Aboard her as she faltered and plummeted into the stormswept sea were seventy-seven men, including Admiral William A. Moffett, Chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics. ' Four wen are reported to have been rescued, -but one of these later died. Every available agency is being pushed to the rescue. Seaplanes, landplanes, and coastguard boats sped towards the scene of the crash about twenty miles off Barnegat Light, approximately 45 wiles from New York Harbour. The tanker Phoebus, flying the flag of the Danzig Free State, bound from New York for Tampico, was within a few miles of the Akron when the wireless spluttered an SOS through the statieehoked skies at 1.30 a.m. There was no further word from the airship, which apparently descended rapidly, either falling, or crippled to the point of a forced descent. Captain Dalldorf, of the Phoebus, flashed the word to shore as he turned his ' slow-moving tanker from her course that the Phoebus had rescued four survivors picked up from the sea. These were Lieut.-Commander H. V. Wiley, second in command of the Akron, and three enlisted men: Moody Erwin, metalsmith ; Richard Deal, boatswain’s mate; and Robert Copeland, chief radio operator. Copeland died shortly afterwards.

The Akron was on a test flight, which was to have taken her along the New England coast. She was to have returned to-morrow. She returned a fortnight ago from an extended cruise to Panama.

Lightning is believed to have struck the airship, though details are lacking. The Akron had ridden out many worse storms. At 8 p.m. on Monday she reported, “All well” to Lakehurst.