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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 0093.PDF
FLIGH1, JULY IS, 1933 GA/U Jtataftcnt THE ACCIDENT TO THE "CITY OF LIVERPOOL" T 'HE report of the technical inquiry made by the Belgian authorities into this accident has been received by the Air Ministry, and a further supple mentary report by the Inspector of Accidents of the British Air Ministry has now been completed and rendered to the Secrtary of State for Air. The substance of the conclusions reached in both reports is now published for information. The aircraft City of Liverpool (" Argosy "), owned by Imperial Airways, Ltd., left Brussels shortly after midday on Tuesday, March 28, 1933, on the second stage of a journey from Cologne to London. Fifty minutes after the start it caught fire in the air and crashed on plough-land in the neighbourhood of Dixmude, There were no sur vivors. The finding of the Belgian inquiry is to the effect that the fire broke out in the central portion of the aeroplane, between the forward luggage hold and the after luggage hold ; that the theory that the fire originated from the engines is practically untenable ; and that while possible causes could be suggested, these are speculations only, and the evidence does not admit of any definite cause being ascribed. The finding of the Inspector of Accidents of the British Air Ministry is to the effect that on the evidence avail able it is not possible to reach any conclusion as to the actual origin and cause of the fire which gave rise to the accident. The fire itself appears to have been confined to the fuselage of the aircraft. It seems clear, however: (1) that none of the engines had failed or developed any defect ; (2) that the fuel tanks did not burst or spring a leak in the air, and (3) that while the pipe lines them selves were virtually destroyed by the fire, all the pipe connections, nuts and taps throughout the fuel system were intact and free from leakage up to the end and the exhaust pipes were in order. Further, the electrical accu mulators (in the forward freight hold) had not fired. The breakage of the rear portion of the fuselage occurred at a late stage in the descent, some time after the fire had taken complete hold ; the entire wing structure and the whole of the fuselage forward of the rear end of the cabin remained intact up to tne moment of impact on the ground. It has been established that all precautions required by regu lations prior to the flight had been fully observed. Whilst it is regrettable that the cause of the disaster should remain unexplained, the Secretary of State is satis fied that, in view of the exhaustive and impartial technical investigations which have been carried out by two inde pendent expert authorities, nothing could be gained by a further inquiry. The Secretary of State desires to take this opportunity of acknowledging most gratefully the assistance afforded throughout by the Belgian authorities and the cordial co operation extended by them to the Air Ministry Inspector of Accidents and the representatives of Imperial Airways. The Air Mail to, Australia THE Imperial Airways' air liner Arethusa^ which left Croydon on July 1 for the first extension services to Cal cutta, arrived at its destination on July 8. It was three hours late, owing, it is stated, to the spontaneous welcome by large crowds at various points en route. The Arethusa left Karachi on July 7 with six passengers and 500 lb. of mail. In connection with the extension of the route to Aus tralia, the Melbourne correspondent of The Times states that Mr. Dunn (New South Wales), a supporter of Mr. Tang, moved the adjournment, on July 4, in the Austra lian Senate in order to discuss the Commonwealth Govern ment's intentions towards the subsidy for an air mail between Singapore and Australia. He claimed that the " outrageous patronage " extended to the Imperial Airways' liner Astrea (which was officially welcomed at Brisbane on June 23) indicated that the Ministry had made up its mind without giving Australian nrmen or companies a chance. The Federal Auditor- general had reported that there was no real justification >r such a service, and that it would be a public scandal the Imperial Airways' tender for an unwanted service were accepted. Sir George Pearce, the Minister of Defence, in reply, s ;tid that the Auditor-General's opinion was that of a swigle individual ; the majority of Members of Parlia ment were in favour of tne development of air mail ser-ces > and the Ministry was determined that Australians ')uld be considered in connection with the award of con victs. The British Government had wished to control 'Proposed service as far as Darwin, but the Common- alth had insisted on controlling the service all the way r,P ™^aP°re for reasons of defence, and the British Govern- nt had agreed. Invaluable knowledge of the seas and g;'f p °n tne route would be obtained from the service. tend *g* concluded by assuring the Senate that the virl 6<4? ^e service must be from Australian companies, A 1 m°tion was withdrawn. Atlantic Air Service 4> tr C.ONFERENCE, between representatives of the British ;v;,f™stry (Lt. Col. F. C. Shelmerdine), Imperial Air- W nti Co1, Burcr»all), Pan-American Airways (Mr. A. (Mr T ix^ Ma^' Wan) and the Canadian Government a+ St T u > n and Mr- G- Herrmg)> is now taking place mrnt'of S; Newfound'and. with regard to the establish- ship-to sV,an m*ernatiorial airport in Newfoundland and a snore air service with distributing air links operat ing from the airport to Canada and the United States. The question of full Transatlantic air services may also be discussed. As reported elsewhere, Col. Lindbergh has started out on a survey flight of the Arctic air route. The Portsmouth and Isle of Wight Services WE have received the following statistics regarding the number of passengers carried on the Portsmouth, Southsea and Isle of Wight Aviation, Ltd., Air Ferries: — Week ending Ryde and Portsmouth Portsmouth and Shoreham Shoreham and Isle of Wight Portsmouth and Shanklin .. Ryde and Shanklin June 8 249 9 4 16 18 June 15 196 1 4 4 9 June 22 174 0 3 13 5 June 29 198 1 7 2 6 July 6 263 6 4 44 11 Deruluft Report for 1932 IN their report for 1932 the Deutsch-Russische Luft- werkelus-Gesellschaft (Deruluft) announce that 981,800 km. (610,058 miles) were covered during 1932 as compared with 903,200 km. (561,218 miles) in 1931, on the same airways system; 3,610 passengers as against 3,079 (or an increase of 17.2 per cent.). Freight and mail, on the other hand, decreased 9.7 per cent, and 16.6 per cent, respec tively. The report states that the ground organisation will be developed on the Berlin-Moscow route by installing wireless and D/F stations at Moscow, Kaunas (Kowno) and Welikiye-Luki, so that the Moscow-Welikiye-Luki sec tion may be flown by night. The Deruluft Co. have put new multi-engined aircraft of Russian and German construction on the Berlin-Moscow route and plan to do likewise for the extension to Leningrad. There were no casualties during 1932 operations. Mr. J. Anwelt, director of Aeroflot, was elected to the presidency instead of Mr. Holzmann, general director of Aeroflot, while Councillor Muhlig-Hofmann, of the German Air Ministry, was elected a new member of the Board. The Mid-Atlantic Air Station IT is reported that experiments with the s.s. West- falen in the Southern Atlantic have been completed, and after many tests it has been decided that the inauguration of the service with catapulted aircraft is scheduled for August. These Africa-South America services will be run every fortnight, in conjunction with the Zeppelin de partures, so that they may together form a weekly postal connection. 701
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