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Aviation History
1930
UNTITLED0 - 1175.PDF
/ FLIGHT, OCTOBER 10, 1930 The upper photograph shows R.IOI before the insertion of the new bay, and the lower view shows her after she had been lengthened. (FLIGHT Photo.) Bell and Binks both escaped from the rear engine car. Bell had just been relieved by Binks, but waited a few moments before climbing up the ladder into the hull, and so saved his life. Two other engineers, Cook and Savory, also escaped— we imagine because they were in the two rear wing engine cars. All the rest of the company perished, and the only comfort we can find is that their end must have bsen mercifully quick. There was no long-drawn-out agony such as has made some railway accidents so particularly horrible. We have mentioned the heroism of Irwin, the captain, in sticking to his post and dying there, when, perhaps, he might have had a chance to save his life. We must also record the pluck of Leech, Bell and Binks in doing their best to get others out of the wreckage. Disley, too, showed remarkable devotion to duty in making his way to a telephone and in- forming the Air Ministry at 4 a.m. (G.M.T.) of the disaster. The photographs show that the framework at the nose is badly buckled, as one would expect. The structure is most completely wrecked at the bay where the passenger coach was slung. This would be due partly to the weight of the coach and partly to that bay apparently having struck a bank The rear portion of the hull is wonderfully little damaged. The fabric remains unburnt on the lower surfaces of the two elevators. Both the stainless steel and the duralumin seem to have withstood the terrific heat m a most remarkable manner. On receipt of the news, Air Chief Marshal Sir John Salmond, Chief of the Air Staff accompanied by Air Commodore F. V. Holt, Director of Technical Development, flew across to Beauvais in a R.A.F. aeroplane. Major Cooper, Inspector of Accidents, Professor Bairstow, Sqdn.-Ldr. Booth, captainof R 100, and other experts, also flew across in a civil aero- plane. Sir John Salmond flew back the same evening, butAir Commodore Holt and the others remained at Beauvais to collect evidence. As soon as news of the disaster had time to spread, theFrench authorities took every possible step to help. Gendarmes and soldiers and local authorities set to work toextricate the bodies, and they also protected the wreckage from souvenir-hunters. M. Laurent Eynac, the Air Minister,himself arrived on the scene at the earliest moment, and spoke to the survivors in hospital. The Maires and peopleof Beauvais and Alionne also did evervthing in their power, and, in brief, France and her people omitted nothing whichcould have been done to show their sympathy with Great Britain in her grievous loss. Our gratitude to France will notfade. The bodies were mostly unrecognisable. On Tuesdaythey were brought to Boulogne, the French according them full military honours. There they were taken on boardH.M.S. Tempest, which crossed to Dover, and they arrived at Victoria in the early hours of Wednesday morning. ThePrime Minister was one of the huge crowd which waited to see them arrive. They were then removed in R.A.F. lorriesto the mortuary in Horseferry Road. On Friday there will be a memorial service at St. haul's Cathedral, at which theKing will be represented by the Prince of Wales. The caffins will lie in state in Westminster Hall that clay from 8 a.m. to10 p.m. On Saturday they will be taken by train from St. Pancras to Cardington, where they will be buried in one 1111
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