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Show SHENANDOAH IS WRECKER BYWIND AIRMEN ARE KILLED WHEN AIRSHIP FALLS TO EARTH IN THREE PIECES Heavy Wind While Passing Over Ohio Is Said to be Cause of Disaster; Commander is Among the Dead Caldwell, Ohio The giant dirigible Shenandoah is no more. It went down in three pieces here early September third and killed its commander: Lieutenant Lieu-tenant Commander Zachary Lans-downe, Lans-downe, and thirteen of the officers and men making up her crew. The airship struck a line sqall a variety of storm most feared by airmen air-men shortly after 5 o'clock near this Noble county village, while traveling at an altitude of 3000 feet en route from Lakehurst, N. J., to the west. There was no explosion. The big ship simply met winds of a strength which it was unable to combat. After Af-ter encountering the storm at the high altitude the ship headed heavenward heaven-ward to an altitude of approximately 5000 feet, when it suddenly came down again and broke into three pieces. One piece, 450 feet or more in length, fell in a field about one and a half miles from Ava. The control compartment, in which the commander com-mander and navigating crew were riding, fell fifty feet away, and the third section, 150 feet long, drifted through the air like a free balloon for tweleve miles, landing near Sharon, Noble county. Most of the dead were found in the tangled wreckage of the control cabin, where a full crew was on duty attempting at-tempting to ride out the buffeting winds which resulted in the complete destruction of the giant of the air. Ambulances and other conveyances which carried physicians and others to the scene immediately following the accident were transporting the dead and injured to near-by towns. Those who met death in the unsuccessful unsuc-cessful fight against the elements were taken to Belle Valley, while the injured were scattered in the various hospitals of the community. The story of the disaster is one of heroism of the crew, pioneers in the interest of the development of lighter-than-air transportation. It is best told by Colonel C. C. Hall, United States army observer aboard the ill-fated ill-fated ship. 'We were traveling west at an altitude alti-tude of about 4000 feet when we encountered en-countered a storm," polonel Hall said in describing the accident. "By changing our course a dozen or more time, we dodged it, only to encounter the line squawl which sent us to an altitude of 5500 feet before we realized real-ized what had happened. "We opened the valves to let out gas and lowered the ship and were drawing draw-ing away from the storm at fifty miles on hour when the storm enveloped envel-oped us and broke the ship into three pieces. I exclaimed to Commander Lansdown: |