List of airship accidents

Accidents of significant historical importance

* 1919 American "Wingfoot Air Express". Caught fire over downtown Chicago, 2 passengers, one crewmember and 10 people on the ground killed, 2 parachuted to safety. [ [http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/disasters/dirigible_crash.html Chicago Public Library Archive] ]
* 1921 British "R38". Built for US, broke in half and burned after suffering structural failure during high-speed trials over Hull. 44 killed, five survivors.
* 1922 American "Roma" (ex-Italian "T34"). Hit power lines in Virginia and caught fire. 34 killed, 11 survivors.
* 1923 French "Dixmude" (ex Zeppelin LZ114). Caught in storm over Mediterranean and presumably burned in the air. All of the crew (more than 50) killed.
* 1925 US Navy USS "Shenandoah". Caught in storm over Noble County, Ohio, and broke into several pieces. 14 killed, 29 survivors.
* 1928 Italian semi-rigid "Italia". Crashed on return from successful trip to North Pole. 7 killed, 9 survivors.
* 1930 British "R101". Rushed to completion, dove into ground during rainstorm in France. 48 killed, 6 survivors.
* 1933 USS "Akron". Lost at sea off coast of New Jersey after severe storm. 73 dead, 3 survivors.
* 1934 Soviet Union "W-7 bis".
* 1935 USS "Macon" crashed off coast of Point Sur, Monterey, California after sustaining tail damage due to crosswinds. 2 dead, 81 survivors.
* 1937 German "Hindenburg" burned on landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey. 35 dead, 62 survivors.
* 1938 Soviet Airship W6 Ossoawiachim 16 out of 19 crew died after crashing into a mountain on an arctic rescue mission.
* 1960 On July 6, a US Navy ZPG-3W, crashed into the sea off New Jersey. 18 of the 21 crew were killed.

Recent and/or minor accidents

* 1933 US Navy airship J3 lost with two crew killed looking for USS "Akron" survivors.
* 1942 The disappearance of the two-person crew of the [http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/L-8_crash_site.htm US naval blimp L-8] a.k.a. "The Ghost Blimp." The Ghost Blimp mystery was featured in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.
* October 8, 1980 The 170-foot Jordache blimp, leased by Jordache Enterprises Co., crashes at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, New Jersey on its maiden flight. With an 0815 hrs. launch, and a flightplan to Teterboro Airport and thence to a Manhattan photo shoot, the airship, weighed down with gold and burgundy paint, reaching 600 feet altitude, begins an unplanned right descending turn, with pilot James Buza, 40, making a "controlled descent" into a garbage dump, impaling the blimp on a pine tree, coming down a quarter mile from the site of the Hindenberg's 1937 demise. Buza, the only complement, is unhurt. [ Associated Press, "Blimp Crashes Near Zeppelin Crash Site", Anderson Independent, Anderson, South Carolina, Thursday, October 9, 1980, page 4A.]
* July 1, 1986 The experimental Helistat 97-34J crashes at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst in Lakehurst, New Jersey after completing a test flight, killing one.
* July 4, 1993 The airship Bigfoot, which bore the Pizza Hut logo crashed on top of buildings in Manhattan. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE4DB1E3DF936A35754C0A965958260 New York Times] ] .
*The Goodyear blimp named the "Stars and Stripes" crashed shortly after take off on June 13, 2005 in Coral Springs, Florida. No one was injured. Bad weather may have been a factor in the incident.
*The Hood blimp crashed into a wooded area of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts on September, 26, 2006. The airship left Beverly Municipal Airport at about 12:15 p.m. Shortly after, the pilot started to have problems, and he tried to land on Singing Beach, but instead got caught in some trees near Brookwood Road. The pilot was not injured.

References