Crash of the USS Shenandoah

The USS Shenandoah was the first American-built rigid airship and the pride of the U.S. Navy's lighter-than-air fleet. On September 3, 1925, while on a publicity and goodwill flight over the Midwest, the airship was caught in a violent line squall over Ohio and was torn apart in the air.

The storm's powerful updrafts and turbulence broke the great dirigible into sections. Of the crew of forty-three, fourteen men were killed, including the commander, Lieutenant Commander Zachary Lansdowne. Remarkably, many crewmen survived by riding the separated sections of the hull down to the ground.

A key reason the disaster was not even worse was that the Shenandoah was inflated with non-flammable helium rather than the highly flammable hydrogen used by European airships. Because there was no fire or explosion, the wreck broke apart rather than burning, allowing some aboard to live. The crash nonetheless dealt a heavy blow to American confidence in the rigid airship and fueled lasting debate over the safety and military value of such craft.