The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1922-02-22
SURVIVORS JUMPED
BEFORE EXPLOSION
Contact with Electric Wire Or
iginated Calamity with no Par
allel in History of American
Air Observation-Disclosures I'm
able to Reach Men Perishing
in Furnace of Blazing Gas.

Norfolk Va. Feb, % (By the Asoo
cated Press) ss).--lnvest,gation of the
wrecking OF the giant army dirigible
Roma at the army base here yester.
day afternoon was begun this morn ny
with the arrival of officers from Wash
.ngton
All Of the "a dead have been id9nt..
fed. or the eleven survivors OF the
crew and passengers eight are in no p
pitfalls One is in a critical condition
but the others are expected to live.
Newport News, Va, Feb 20 (By the
Associated Press Reports were in
circu'a alton today that the bag of the
sem -d.rig.Lie Roma, which crashed at
Norfolk yesterday with loss of 81
lives, was In rotten condition. The
rumors will be inve tigated by army
officers who are skeptcal in view Of
the fact that the dIrigibla had been
given a number of severe tests before
the trial flight was attempted.
Norfolk, Va, Feb. 20 CBy the AS
soc.ated Press) THE recovery of the
last body from the ru MS Of the ex-
osion o. the digigible has fixed the
death toll at "a WI. eight in 'ured
and three practically unhurt. Thirty
Of the bodies OF identified are bul ned
leyond recogn.t on.
II is expected that the board OF in.
quiry VIII find that the left rudder
gave away and that there was no fire
unit after the rudderless ship tilted,
that the cra.t narrowly missed a
smoke stack and that the immediate
cause OF the explosion which wreck
ed the craft and set the fire was con
tact with an electric wire a hundred
feet from tie ground.
Norfo k, Va, Feb. 22.-Th.rty four
men were killed, eight injured seri-
ously and three uniniu9ed or only
slightly bruised when the giant army
airship Roma with her crew and a
number of civilians total ng forty-iiye
N all, aboard, plunged from thous'
and feet to the ground at the Hamp
ton Roads naval base
The accident presumably was caus.
ed by broken rridder, and as the
huge dlrleible plunged to earth she
capsized across high tension Q &C.
trio line bursting into a roaring .ur.
mace o. blazing hydrogen gas
Long after dark tonight, many
hours after her fall, tie ship was
still mass Of flames from end to end
Cf her 4l0 foot mass. The fire fed on
the million cubic feet o. gas, which
bad dlstended the great bag for the
fight, and made all attempts at res
cue work futile.
kare'y dozen Of Close aboard
were picked up alive, and one Of
these died on the way to the hospi.
tai. All who survived the fire es-
caned by jumping as the sh p struck,
The others, penned in the ull of the
fallen bag were burned to death
The flames finally were quenched
by three fire departments with chem
iCa's And then derricks began
picking UP the wreckage, VIII G. con
sisted of scarcely more th'n the
aluminium framework and the six
Liberty motors. Within the Hte,K.
are Law the bodies, practical y al
charred beyond recogn tion. But be-
fore the night had passed thirty-thre
bodies had been removed, accounting
FOR the last of those who we're
known to have taken fl ght on the
fatal voyage.
Accounts OF survivors and OF eye
witnesses on what had .appened ap
peared to agree that the huge kite
like structure of the stern rudder il
self as large as a bombing plane, had
slipped TO one side as the Roma
drove along thousand feet above
the army base.
She was making trial nifat W I'll
new battery Of Liberty motors
They were installed to rep ace Italian
engines bought W tn her in lta'y. but
which had not proved satisfactory
Installation was completed at Lang
ley Field two weeks ago.
II was Just before p. M, whef
those below at the army post al
Hampton Roads base. their attention
caught by the approaching thunder o
thn a t,,rNst-r Ir.I.,J -.