The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-24
Sixteen Occupants Dash
 cd to Earth.
Y ALI SERIOUSLY INJURED
It is Believed Two of Them Will Die.
The Ascension Was Made fin View of Thousands, Including Many we- men, and Some of Them
 Painted.

| Oakland. Cal, May 23.--The great Morrell airship. the largest ever con- structed. burst on its trial trip when 800 feet in the air above a crowd of 10000 spectators at Berkeley, at iI:40 o'clock today.
 The sixteen men who made the as- cension with the big craft were dashed to the ground and every one of thssst more or less injured. Broken legs and arms and internal injuries were suf- fered by most of them. and 1t Is be- lieved that two will die.
 The accident was a most spectacular one. A great crowd had gathered about vacant lot where the big gas bag had been inflated with 500. 900 cubic feet of Illuminating gas. to watch the trial of the airship. There were sixteen persons. five of them engineers in charge of the five gasoline engines. several newspaper photographers. the inventor of the airship, c, A. Morrell. and an Australian aeronaut, who. against the orders of Morreli, climbed onto the rigging just as the great ship lifted from the crowd, made the ascent. All of these persons were injured and their escape from death is almost miraculous.
 Rising slowly under the power from five gasoline engines the great airship lifted to a height of probably 800 feet. Suddenly there was a ripping, roaring sound and the forward end of the ale ship tilted downward. and 1t began to settle slowly to the ground. The oo- cupants of the airship hung desper- ately to the rigging, while the crowd of 10000 persons were panic-stricken before what appeared to be impepdinn disaster to the sixteen men.
 Several Leaped.
 As the airship settled toward the n. a..z Iss.. were seriously injured in the fall: oth@ CTS stayed with the craft until st reached the ground, and they. too, wera injured by the heavy engines and the structure of the airship. FolicwinK ia I fiet of the injured:
 | c. A. Morreii, inventor of the Mor- 1 reil airsl1ip, legs broken. seriously in- 1 jured; C. C Trippie San Francisco. engineer engine No {. crushed py hfs I engine; Justin Barber Berkeley. cons i mefcial pliotographer ribs broken, ir- | formally injured; W Tyson San Fran cisco valve tender jumped when car was within fifty feet of the ground. isi- formally injured: E. c. C. Galiln. san Francisco, newspaper Photographer badly lacerated. probably internally in- jured; P H. Goodfriend. first engineer jumped before car reached ground, se- verely. but not dangerously injured. H Miller vavle tender. cut and brnis- cd John Burns. riding on top of gas bag, bruised and lacerated: Charles r. Hall. commercial photographer. riding in forward network. internally injured: John Peterson. assistant to Ndalls bruise and lacerated. not seri- ous: V. J Fulno. engineer second sn- zine. cut and bruised. not serious; W. Mowrey, engineer No. 5, slightly in- iured: Captain Tenfold, Australian aeronaut. crushed. legs broken and se- riousfy injured by engine.
 Tenfold pumped into the rigging ot the airsfip as 1t rose fNom the ground against the wishes of Morreli. the in- ventor.
 J. V. Rogers. assistant engineer. in- ternal injuries, probably will die; c. A. Nelson, cut about head. severely in- jured.