History of Significant Accidents of Airships After WWI

If you ever observe the history of airships, you will find plenty of accidents due to several reasons. In the 90s, a lot of accidents of airships took place due to which governments bear a lot of loss in monetary terms as well as the in the form of deaths of passengers and crew members. In this article, I have briefly discussed some major accidents of airships or blimps after the World War l.

Major Accidents of Airships:

In 1919, an American airship named Wingfoot Air Express caught fire during its flight and resulted in the death of 13 people. At that time, 5 peoples were travelling in Wingfoot Air Express including 4 passengers, 1 crew member, out of which 2 passenger landed using parachute safely. In this accident, 10 out of 13 peoples who died were not traveling on the airship, but were common pedestrian.

In 1921, a British airship named as R38 broke into two pieces during its flight. It was actually a trail flight but a lot of peoples died in this accident. According to the statistics, 44 peoples died in this fatal accident and 5 were seriously injured.

In 1922, an American airship named as “Roma” caught fire after hitting the power line in Virginia. In this accident, 34 peoples were killed.

In 1923, a French blimp (Zeppelin LZ114) was caught by a storm during its flight. The actual deaths in this accident are not conformed but it is believed that more than 50 people were died in this accident.

In 1925, USS Shenandoah was caught in a storm that resulted in the death of 14 people. In this accident, more than 34 were seriously injured but fortunately, 29 survived.

In 1928, a semi-rigid airship Italia crashed after a successful journey to North Pole resulting in the death of 7 people.

In 1930, a British airship “R101” dove into the ground due to a heavy rainstorm. In this accident, 48 people were killed.

In 1933, a US airship “USS Akron” was lost after a storm. More than 73 people died in this accident and no dead bodies were found.

In 1935, USS Macon was damaged from its tail due to the heavy wind. Fortunately, only 2 people died in this accident and 81 survived.

In 1937, a German airship named “Hindenburg” caught fire while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, which resulted in the death of 35 people and 62 survivors.

In 1938, SSSR-V6 OSOAVIAKhIM was crashed during a practice flight that was designed for arctic rescue mission. In this mission, 19 senior crew members participated, out of which 16 lost their lives.

On July 1960, a US airship named as “ZPG-3W” crashed in the sea located in New Jersey. This accident was a great loss for US because 18 out of 21 crew members were killed.