The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1922-02-23


an hour after she was seen to burst
into flames.
Struck a Building.
Reports from Portsmouth which is
near the naval base, said the Roma
after slanting plunge of hundreds of
feet, struck one of the barracks build
ing at the base and then exploded with
ripping crash. A sheet of flame
leaped from the rent in the gas bag
and the passenger compartments slung
underneath dropped twenty feet to
the ground below.
Other officials at Langley field said
there were twenty-one men in the Of
fetal crew of the airship and thirty or
forty passengers and enlisted men
aboard. One man was seen by OBJ
servers at the Standard Oil company
plant at Sewells Point, to jump from
the ship while she still was several
hundred feet in the air.
Fourteen men, according to other
observers at Portsmouth, were seen to
leap from the ship as it became ap-
parent that she would strike one of the
naval base barrack buildings. Some,
it was reported, chung to parachutes
while others jumped straight to the
ground, choosing to take their chances
in that manner rather than staying
aboard the blazing ship.
Witnesses at the scene of the burn
ing ship said at three O'Clock when she
still was burning like a furnace, that
fully half dozen men were pinned
beneath the wreckage. The body of
one man had been removed up to
that time.
None Escape Unhurt.
The Roma was between 500 and 1000
feet in the air when she fell, officers at
the Hampton Roads naval base stated.
Some Of the passengers aboard the
ship were virtually unhurt, although
all were shaken up. A number of the
men jumped from the cars of the Roma
as she fell. There were some reports
that others were caught under her and
these, it is believed, were killed almost
instantly.
Among the definitely known surviv-
ors were Capt. J, D. Reed and Lieut.,
Byron G. Burt, the official pilots of
the Roma, and j. NJ. Biedenbach and
Vernon Peek, engineers.
Members of Official Crew.
Norfolk, Va.-Members of the official
crew of the Roma were announced at
Langley Field as follows:
Major John G. Thornell, former com
mander.
Capt. Dale Mabry, commander.
Capt. w. J. Reed, pilot
Lieut.. Byron G. Burt, pilot.
Sgt. R. B. McNally, coxswain.
Sgt. L. NJ. Harris, chief engineer.
Sgt. Lewis Hilliard, engineer.
NJ. G. Field, engineer.
J. NJ. Biedenbach, engineer.
Sgt. Thomas Marlborough, engineer.
Sgt. Billy Ryan, radio operator.
Sgt. Vergil Hoffman, rigger.
Corp. Irby Huzion, rigger.
Corp. Alberto Floresa, rigger.
Private Gus Kinkston, rigger.
Private Marion Hill, rigger.
Private t. NJ. Blakley, engineer.
Private John Thompson, engineer.
Private Vernon Peek, engineer.
Sgt. Homer Gorby, photographer.
Sgt. L. G. Loupes, photographer.
Third Similar Accident.
New York City The dirigible
Roma which blew up today over Hamp-
ton Roads was the third big airship
to be destroyed in spectacular mis-
hap in the last IL months.
On August "a, 1921, the ZR-2 built
by the British for purchase by the
United States at cost of $4,000 900
exploded over Hull, Eng, killing AZ in
Guiding 16 Americans.
On January 1, 1921 the R-34 which
flew from England to Long Island and
back in the summer Of 1919 the first
airship to cross the Atlantic was
wrecked in gale outside her airdrome
In Howden. England