The St. Johns herald., 1922-03-09
GIANT AIRSHIP FALLS 1000 Fl. BURNING DEBRIS TRAPS MANY AFTER GIANT SHIP EX-
 PLODEs. .THIRTY-FOUR DIE IN AIR DIRIGI5LE BURSTS INTO FLAMES AFTER CRASHING INTO HIGH
 TENSION WIRES.
tWestern Newspaper Union News serics.)


 Norfolk, Va.-Thirty-four men were killed, eight were injured seriously and three were uninjured or only slightly bruised when the giant army alrship Roma, with her crew and a number of civilians, tOtaling fOrty-five in all, plunged from a thousand feet or more in the air to the ground at the Hampton Roads naval base. The accident presumably was caused by broken rudder and as the huge dirigi- ble plunged to earth it capsized across a high tension electric line, bursting into roaring furnace of blazing hy- drOgen gas.
 Long after dark, many hours after her fall, thes hip was still in flames from end to end of her 410-foot mass. The fire fed on the million cubic feet of gas which had distended the great bag for the flight and made all at tempts at rescue work futile.
 Barely dozen of those aboard were picked up alive. All who survived the fire escaped by jumping as the ship struck. The others, penned in the hull of the fallen bag, were burned to death.
 The flames were finally brought in- to submission by three fire depart ments who fought them with chemi. calls. Derricks then began picking up the wreckage which consisted of scarcely more than the aluminium framework and the six Liberty motors of the once proud ship of the air. Within the wreckage lay the bodies, practically all charred beyond recOg- hilton.
 Accounts of survivors and of eye witnesses as to what had happened appeared to agree that the huge kite like structure of the stern rudder, It. 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 a trial flight with new battery or Liberty motors. They were installed to replace Italian en- zines bought with her in Italy, but which have not proved satisfactory.
 Those below at the army base at Hampton Roads, had their attention caught by the approaching thunder of the six motors and looked up to see the Roma dip down from her straight flight.
 The ship nOsed steeply down as she  came closer and it was seen that her crew were hurling out sand ballast from the ports in the fragile fabric that formed the covering of the space between her keel and back, the living and operating quarters of the ship.
 The dipping blunt nose of the bag did not respond. On the ship came, unchecked in her glide earthward, head first. Her commander could not force her the few hundred feet that would have dropped her into the wa ters of the bay and comparative safety for her people.
 Below ran the high double wires of the high power electric line. It car ried a 2,3OO-vOlt current. The ROma's nose, shOd with it's aluminium guard, sank into the wires, broke them as the ship flattened to earth and rolled over, and the next moment came the noise of an explosion. Flames burst out along the hull space.
 The airship Roma was an Italian builtacraft purchased by the United States government from Italy early in 1921 for $2OO,OOO She was, it was be- lieved, the largest semi-rigid aircraft in the world, the cost of which dupli- cated, it was said by War Department officials at the. time of her purchase, probably would be $1, ,250,OOO.
 It was brought to this country aboard ship, after the disaster to the dirigible ZR-2, purchased from Great Britain, over the city of Hull, England.