American Passenger Airships

• On July 21, 1919, the Wingfoot Air Express caught fire over downtown Chicago and crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings building. One crew member and two passengers were killed, as were 10 bank employees. On February 21, 1922, The Roma, a former Italian airship, caught fire after hitting power lines in Virginia during a test flight. Thirty-four people were killed, while 11 people survived.
  
  

American Military Airships

• On September 3, 1925, on its 57th flight, the Navy airship USS Shenandoah broke up in the air after being caught in a storm over Noble County, Ohio. Fourteen people perished, while a further 29 survived. On April 4, 1933, USS Akron met a storm over the New Jersey coast and crashed into the sea, killing 73 men on board. During the search for survivors, a Navy J-3 aircraft crashed, killing two more. On February 12, 1935, USS Macon crashed off the coast of Point Sur in California. Two died, while 81 survived.
  
  

British Airships

• The R38 airship crash was the first airship disaster following the World War I. It crashed on August 24, 1921, during high-speed trials over Hull, in Yorkshire, England. The front half of the airship exploded, while the back half fell into the river. Forty-four of 49 people on board, British and Americans, died. In October 1930, the British airship R101 crashed nose-first in France. Forty-eight crew and passengers died; eight survived.
  
  

European Airship Crashes

• On August 8, 1901, the early pioneer of airships, Alberto Santos-Dumont, survived an explosion and crash after his airship failed to clear the roof of the Trocadero Hotel in central Paris. He was left hanging from a basket from the side of the hotel, but managed to climb to the roof uninjured. On December 21, 1923, Le Dixmude, a former airship of the German Navy which was given to France after World War I and recommissioned to French naval service, was lost at sea in the Mediterranean. None of the 44 people on board survived. On May 25, 1928, the Italian semi-rigid airship Italia crashed on the ice north-east of Spitsbergen on the return from a trip to the North Pole. The crew numbered 16. Nine crew members were thrown out of the ship alive onto the ice, one additional crew member was also thrown out but found dead, while six crew members trapped inside the envelope of the airship floated away, never to be found.