25 OCTOBER 1913, Page 2

We regret to have to record another terrible airship disaster

in Germany. The new German navy dirigible, 'Zeppelin L IL' was making one of her final trials at Johannisthal, near Berlin, with an exceptionally numerous crew, and was at a height of six hundred and fifty feet when flames broke out between the fore-engine car and the envelope. In two or three seconds the whole ship was on fire and fell to the earth. Of the twenty-eight men who composed the crew twenty-five were killed outright and the remaining three died shortly after- wards. The disaster, the tenth which has befallen airships of the Zeppelin type, has eclipsed all others in the terrible loss inflicted on the personnel of aeronautic experts. The courage and persistence shown by the German people in refusing to be daunted by events so terrible is beyond praise.