1.
L.V. The crashed blimp with salvage crew around it.


2.
Nearer V. The crashed blimps with salvage crew around it.


3.
/C.U. A man being held up by a crane, cutting away the skin of the blump.


4.
S.V. The crew on the ground hacking up the skin of the Blimp


5.
C.U. The crew on the ground hacking up the skin of the Blimp.


6.
S.V. The crew on the ground hacking up the skin of the Blimp.


7.
Angle V. A piece of the hull held up by a crane.


8.
S.C.U.Pan up the damaged hull.


9.
L.V. The wreckage around the engine.


10.
Front L.V. The wrecked hull of the blimp.




Initials M.R./P.B.



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A rare disaster in these days of supersonic speed occurred recently in the Atlantic island of Bermuda when a United States Navy "Blimp" crashed while landing.

The "Blimp" - the only airships now in regular service - was almost completely destroyed although the engines and the crew gondola emerged with little damage.

Although the huge airships went out of favour following shattering disasters to the R.101 and the world-famous "Hindenburg", the U.S. Navy re-introduced these floating gasbags into service at the end of the recent world war when they proved more than useful in anti-submarine patrols.

Capable of flying at minimum speeds matched only by helicopters and even then much more steady, the "Blimps" proved quite useful on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States were they could not be reached by hostile fighters.

When our cameraman visited the scene f the crash, US Air force salvage men were busy cutting up the deflated null of the airship into manageable strips as they slowly took the sub-chaser to pieces.

As they did so, one of the United States Air Force modern 600 m.p.h. jet bombers flew overheard in noisy mockery of this ghost of the early days of aviation.