- List of airship accidents
Accidents of significant historical importance
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1919 American "Wingfoot Air Express". Caught fire over downtownChicago , 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 inVirginia and caught fire. 34 killed, 11 survivors.
*1923 French "Dixmude" (exZeppelin 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 inFrance . 48 killed, 6 survivors.
*1933 USS "Akron". Lost at sea off coast ofNew 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 atLakehurst ,New Jersey . 35 dead, 62 survivors.
*1938 SovietAirship W6 Ossoawiachim 16 out of 19 crew died after crashing into a mountain on an arctic rescue mission.
*1960 OnJuly 6 , a US NavyZPG-3W , crashed into the sea off New Jersey. 18 of the 21 crew were killed.Recent and/or minor accidents
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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 ofUnsolved Mysteries .
*October 8 ,1980 The 170-footJordache blimp, leased by Jordache Enterprises Co., crashes atNaval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst ,New Jersey on its maiden flight. With an 0815 hrs. launch, and a flightplan toTeterboro Airport and thence to aManhattan 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 theHindenberg '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 experimentalHelistat 97-34J crashes atNaval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst inLakehurst, 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] ] .
*TheGoodyear blimp named the "Stars and Stripes" crashed shortly after take off onJune 13 ,2005 inCoral 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
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