Airship Disaster

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 413, 3 November 1930, Page 7

Airship Disaster

CHARRED PORTION OF LOG LAST ENTRY BEFORE CRASH ißy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyri J LONDON, Oct. 30. The Court of inquiry iniu tne KIUI disaster was resumed lu-uay. it uas oeeu elicited iu tlic pruceeuiugs tliat Lire expt rts wuu exuiuiaed iuu wreciv reacheu the conclusion mat nu part oi mu main structure of tnu vessel broke in the air. Inc elevator control wlieei was iuund to be set lull. The expio sion followed and did nut precede me crush. From a miscoscupic exaniinuiiun uf tlic cable of the eievatur control all the indications wore that it became several after, and nut beiure, the lire lulluwing the crash. it was ai»u clear, on the authurily ul‘ the Director of the Meleui'u logical Office, that suggeatiuns that the failure of the altimeter m-gnt have produced the disaster were nut borne out by the evidence. This proved, according tu the Attorney-General, that the instrument was reading correctly at the moment of the crash.

This morning the Court began the hearing of witnesses, the first being Professor Bairstow, chairman of Air worthiness of Airships. A charred sheet of paper picked up close to the spot where the iilUl was wrecked was produced at to-day’s hearing of the inquiry into the disaster, aud was stated by the Attorney-Gene ral to be a page of the log of the airship. Sir William Jowitt said- the exhibit was of the utmost importance be cause it showed the revolutions oi the engine and the cruising speed down to the time of the accident. He added: “ITie last entry was at 2 a.m. At that time the revolutions were perfectly normal, but the oil fuel pressure, instead of being from 30 to 31, as it had been all along, appeared to be only 3. The numeral 3 at least, was the only entry against that time. Whether this was at the moment of the crash, and there was no time to finish the entry, ?annot be said. I am told that it would be a matter o f engineering practice that if you found your engine pressure at 3 you would stop your engine at one® before making any entry.” Sir John Simon (President of the Court) eaid the man apparently did not complete the entry. It was stated that Cook, one of the survivors, was the engineer in question.