The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1922-02-24
81 KILLED WHEN
GIANT DIRICIBLE
ROMA CRASHES
Huge AirShip Strikes High Ten
sion Electric Line, Explosion
Follows Immediately.
FLAMES BALK RESCUERS
Eleven Survivors Escape Death BY
Jumping as Falling Ship Nears
Ground in Fatal 1000
Foot Plunge.

Norfolk, Va.-Flung earthWard, pre-
sumably by broken rudder the giant
army airship Roma plunged 1000 feet
or more to the ground at the Hamp-
ton Roads army base, capsized across
high tension electric line and burst
into roaring furnace of blazing n.y.
drogen gas in which thirty-four mem
bers of its army crew and passengers
persisted.
Eight persons were injured seri-
ously and three were uninjured or
only slightly bruised, making a total
of As, in all, aboard
Many hours after the fall, the ship
still was mass of flames from end
to end of it's 410-foot mass. The fire
was feeding on the million cubic feet
of gas in the great bag.
Barely a dozen of more than two
score men aboard had been picked UP
alive. One died en- route to a hospi-
tai. ALI who survived the fire escaped
by jumping as the ship struck. The
others, penned in the hull beneath the
fallen bag, were burned to death
Heat of the fire fought back the res
cuers for hours.
Every man who escaped was burned
or bruised. Witnesses and survivors
of the smash agreed that the huge,
kite-like structure of the stern rudder,
itself as large as a bombing plane,
had slipped down and to one side as
the Roma drove along 1000 feet above
the army base.
The airship, which is estimated to
have cost about $1,250,000, was MAX
ing trial flight with new battery
of Liberty motors. They were in
stalled to replace Italian engines
bought with her in Italy, which proved
unsatisfactory.
Motors Thunder Draws Attention.
1t was just before 2 p. M, when
those below at the army base at
Hampton Roads, their attention
caught by the approaching thunder of
the six motors, looked up to see the
Roma dip down from it's straight
flight. All agreed that the rudder
seemed to slip.
The ship nosed down sharply and
as it fell nearer it was seen that the
crew was hurting out sand ballast
from the ports in the fragile fabric
that formed the covering of the space
between the keel and back, living and
operating quarters. The dipping,
blunt nose of the bag did not respond.
On came the ship, unchecked in it's
glide earthward head-first. The COM
mander could not force it forward the
few hundred feet that would have
dropped it into the bay and compare
tive safely for those aboard.
Below ran the double wires of the
high tension electric line. 1t carried
a 1900 volt current. The Roma's
nose, covered with aluminium, thrust
into the wires and broke them as the
ship f1attened to earth and rolled over,
and the next moment an explosion &C.
Cured and flames burst out along the
hull space.
Men Rush to Rescue.
There was a rush of men to the
rescue from the army post and the
navy base beyond. Just as the Roma
to leap from high up in the slanting
hull AS the stricken flaming monster
writhed in it's first death agony, ten
men dropped from doors or ports, or
through holes they tore in the fabric
sides that enclosed them. Some
leaped from the platform where the
engines stood, far out from the hull.
So swift was the flare of the gas
flame that rescuers were driven back
before it's terrific heat. They watched
helplessly as the great eighty foot bag
shriveled in the fierce blaze of the
liberated gas.
The Roma was wall of flame a
city block long and until the thou
sands of gallons of chemicals and wa
ter had checked the fire it was i'm
possible to reach the comrades
mangled and dead in that fiery fur
mace. The ship left no passenger list
behind when it set out for a brief
trial run from Langley field