Today -100: September 4, 1925: Not as safe as a great many people have been led to believe

The US Navy’s dirigible USS Shenandoah breaks in three near Caldwell, Ohio, flying during a storm, two years after its first flight. 14 of its crew of 43 are killed, including its captain, Zachary Lansdowne, which is a dirigible-captain sort of name, I suppose. Crowds will race to the crash site to loot the airship for souvenirs and valuable duralumin, as one does.

Secretary of the Navy Curtis Wilbur says the Navy will continue to use huge rigid airships. Well, airship, since it now has one dirigible remaining (and that one isn’t allowed to be used in war, by the agreement for its construction by Germany).  Rear Admiral William Moffett, head of the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics, also says Navy aviation policy won’t change but “This accident does show that anything that flies in the air is not as safe as a great many people have been led to believe.” Moffett will die in, what else, a dirigible crash in 1933.

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