OCR Text |
Show ARMY OBSERVER SAYS MOTOR QUIT TWO ENGINES OUT OF COMMIS. SION ON THE SHENANDOAH WHEN CRASH CAME Barograph Shows How Dirigible Con-tested Con-tested Heavy Winds For Half Hour Before Being Overcome Over-come In Air Lakehurst, N. J A failure of two of the engines of the Shenandoah Shen-andoah probably was a primary cause of the destruction of the ship, in the opinion of Colonel C. O. Hal army observer on board during the fatal flights, as given here to the naval na-val court of inquiry. Had all of the engines been functioning, func-tioning, Colonel Hall said, it would have been more probable that the great airship would not have been drawn ino the vortex of the storm which wrecked her. "I do not believe, however, that engine power had anything to do with the situation after we got into the vortex of the storm," he said. The Shenandoah fought the line squall in Ohio. September 3 for at least half an hour before she broke up, the barograph instrument record introduced before the naval court of inquiry, shows. This record establishes that the ship began its first rapid ascent at 4:26 a. m., central time, rising from an altitude of 1850 feet to an altitude alti-tude of 2980 feet in eight minutes. The craft then leveled off, but two minutes later at 4:36, she shot up almost like a rocket from 3016 feet to 6065. in approximately ten . minutes. min-utes. Her ascent halted at this altitude at 4:40 a. m. The Shenandoah then fell abruptly 1765 feet in three minutes, min-utes, bringing up at an altitude of 4280 feet. At this point the barograph, ceased to function consecutively. Lieutenant' Lieuten-ant' Clinton H. Havill, who was introduced in-troduced as an expert, said it was his judgment that it ceased as a result re-sult of the instrument itself receiving receiv-ing a violent bump, or else the whole control car in which it was located received such a bump. There were blotches on the record made of the same ink as that in the barograph, but it was not possible for the officers accurately to interpret the blotches. Whether the barograph ceased to function when the control car broke off the ship could not be determined. Commander Sidney M. Krass, another an-other expert, estimated that the control con-trol car fell only about 1000 feet, and, if that be correct, the barograph ceased to work before the car fell. Testimony that Lieutenant Commander Com-mander Zachary Lansdowne, captain of the Shenandoah, never expressed any protest or reluctance to proceed to the west with the Shenandoah upon the western trip, was given to the court by Lientenant Commander C. E. Rosenthal, nagvigator of the aircraft. |