crash ~Marietta OH–14

lornajarrettblanchard September 3, 1925

— 14 Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM DAT Database.
— 14 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 368.
— 14 Gero. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p. 15.
— 14 Haulman. One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology…1903-2002. 2900 , p. 31
— 14 Nash. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 631.
— 14 Naval Order of the United States. “1925: Airship Shenandoah…” September 11, 2000.
— 14 Shock. US Navy Airships 1915-1962: A History by Individual Airship. 1992, p. 54.
— 14 Socrata, the Open Data Co. Airplane_Crashes_and_Fatalities_Since_1908(1).
— 14 US Dept. Navy. “Casualties: US Navy…Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured…”
— 14 US Dept. Navy, Naval Historical Center. “U.S. Navy Ships Lost in Selected Storm…”
— 14 Vaeth. They Sailed The Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program. 2005, p. 34.

Narrative Information

Gero: “Date: 3 September 1925 (c. 05:30)
“Location: Near Caldwell, Ohio, US
“Operator: US Navy
“Aircraft type: Naval Aircraft Factory dirigible Shenandoah (ZR.1).

“The helium-filled airship fell to earth in pieces 1 around dawn some 80 miles (130km) south- south-west of Columbus, and 14 of the 41 American servicemen aboard were killed. All but two of those who survived escaped with little or no injury. Measuring 682ft (207m) in length, the ZR-1 had been on a publicity tour of the American Mid-west, the flight originating at Lakehurst, New Jersey, and was headed in a south-westerly direction when it encountered an area of thunderstorm activity. Inadvertently flying into a line squall, the dirigible rose to over 6,000ft (1,800m), then lost about half that height in a matter of only a few minutes, and subsequently suffered structural failure at an approximate altitude of 3,700ft (1,100m). Its control car broke away after the initial fracture, sending its occupants, among them the commander, plunging to their deaths. The aft part of the airship, contain¬ing more than half of the survivors, and two other sections of the envelope descended to earth more slowly. The break-up was attributed to large aerody¬namic forces against the dirigible which were produced by strong upward currents of air associ¬ated with the thunderstorm.” (Gero, Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. 1999, p. 15.)

US Navy: “Rigid airship USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) crashed in storm near Marietta OH. 14 killed, 2 injured. 3 Sep. 1925.” (US Navy, Naval Historical Center. “U.S. Navy Ships Lost in Selected Storm…”)

Naval Order of the US: On October 10, 1923 the Shenandoah was christened as a U.S. Navy Airship ZR-1 (Lighter-than-Air Zeppelin, Rigid, #1). (Vaeth 2005, 26) “…two days later the order went to all commands that “Shenandoah is added to the Navy list and assigned for special duty to the Naval Air Station, Lakehurst.” (Naval Order of the US, “1925: Airship Shenandoah…” Sep 11, 2000.)

“Within a few months, Shenandoah had become a familiar sight in the skies of the Northeast and was a favorite topic of newspapers wherever she went. Her seventh flight was an ambitious 2,000 mile trip to the St. Louis air races and in October 1924 she flew to the Pacific and back without incident. A ship’s place is with the fleet, even an airship, and these flights were all publicity stunts. The public ate them up and the Navy ate up the public interest. It was to be Shenandoah’s undoing.”

Shock: “The Navy had announced in 1925 that Shenandoah would make a tour of Midwestern state fairs over the Labor Day weekend, (Naval Order of US), “culminating in a mooring to the new tower mast erected by Henry Ford at Dearborn, Michigan.” (Shock 1992, 54.)

Naval Order of the US: “Cdr. Zachary Lansdowne, Shenandoah’s skipper was a native of Ohio and wasn’t sure he wanted to confront the line squalls and thunderstorms he knew he would find at that time of year. The Navy, however, had put off the trip before and would not do so again, and Shenandoah had close to 30,000 miles under her belt.

“In the early afternoon of 2 September 1925, Shenandoah was made ready for the trip…. By mid-afternoon, Shenandoah’s complement of 41 officers and men was aboard, augmented by two observers, and shortly before 3:00 p.m. she slipped her mooring to the Lakehurst mast and headed west, water streaming as she gained altitude….

“A storm was building to the west and Shenandoah was making little progress against strong head winds. Lansdowne ordered her taken down to 2,000 feet, hoping to find better conditions. There were none, and the airship struggled on for two more hours, getting nowhere. At 5:00 a.m., the sailor manning the dirigible’s elevators told Lansdowne that the ship was rising and the elevators had no effect. The skipper ordered a course change to the south, and the rudder had no effect. He ordered two of the five engines speeded up, and that had no effect. Shenandoah was in the grip of the weather…. A line squall had formed directly above Shenandoah and was sucking her into its boiling clouds. When the airship reached 5,000 feet, Lansdowne ordered helium released, both to save the gas bags and to halt the ascent. He couldn’t release too much gas though, for if the airship’s ascent abruptly ceased, she could rocket downward before ballast could be released. As the ship rose to 6,300 feet, the skipper sent Anderson up the ladder connecting the control car to the body of the airship with orders for men to stand by the emergency valves.

“Before Anderson could return, Shenandoah began falling. She dropped all the way to 2,500 feet and then leveled off. Before anyone could draw a breath in relief, she shot up again, and this time the storm was twisting her in a circle. Anderson [could] hear the sound of tearing metal and knew the airship was breaking up. Navigator Lt. Cdr. Charles E. Rosendahl, who had been supervising ballast release, was in the forward part of the dirigible. Looking down, he saw a large section of the ship’s skin tear away and watched as the control car fell away, taking Lansdowne and seven others to their deaths. Anderson had nearly fallen through that hole, but grabbed a portion of a broken catwalk and saved himself.

“Shenandoah had broken into three pieces. Her bow was now a balloon, far above the other two parts, with Anderson, Rosendahl and five others. The tail section, 350 feet long, was the largest part and was falling fast, weighted with three engines. The center section was the smallest and was dropping like a rock, but its two engines fell free and what little helium remained slowed its descent. It skidded down a hillside and crashed to a stop against some trees. All four aboard that section were injured, but they survived. Four mechanics in the engine cabs were killed. The tail section, with 18 men, bounced off a hilltop, where trees scraped off its three engine cabs. Freed of the weight, it then drifted until it caught against a tree and swung around. Men jumped out and ducked the wreckage above them. All eighteen got out alive.

“In the bow section, which was rising ever higher, Rosendahl took charge, managing the helium to stop the ascent. Anderson couldn’t let go of his precarious perch to grab a line so Lt. Roland G. Mayer lassoed him and pulled him to comparative safety. Rosendahl had one bag of helium and one bag with 1,600 pounds of water to maneuver with, so he decided to land the balloon. As the section approached the ground, Anderson spotted farmer Ernest Nichols on the ground and shouted for him to grab hold of some dangling cables. Nichols snubbed a cable around a fence post, which promptly broke, but the balloon had been yanked downward and settled on the ground. The men jumped out, made lines fast to trees and fence posts and asked Nichols to get a rifle so they could shoot some holes in the gas bag.

“By 7:00 a.m., Shenandoah was on the ground, in three big pieces and some smaller ones scattered over 12 miles of Ohio. Fourteen men had died in the crash and 29 had survived, some of them injured. Nearby farm families in Noble County did what they could for the survivors, but soon came crowds of city folks as if on a picnic, and they brought their tool boxes. By nightfall, the three sections of the airship had been picked clean.” (Naval Order of the US, “1925: Airship Shenandoah…” Sep 11, 2000)

Vaeth: “It was to have been Zachary Lansdowne’s final flight as the Shenandoah’s commander. He was due for sea duty to qualify for promotion. He left [a wife] Betsy [and] their two-year old daughter, Peggy…” (Vaeth, J. Gordon. They Sailed The Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2005, p. 34.)

Sources

Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM DAT Database. Louvain, Belgium: Universite Catholique do Louvain. Accessed at: http://www.emdat.be/

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Gero, David. Military Aviation Disasters: Significant Losses Since 1908. UK and Newbury Park, CA: Patrick Stephens Limited, an imprint of Hayes Publishing, 1999.

Haulman, Daniel L. One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events 1903-2002. Maxwell Air Force Base, AL; AIR University Press, 2003, 170 pages. Accessed at: http://www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/chronologyofflight.pdf

Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.

Naval Order of the United States. “1925: Airship Shenandoah…” September 11, 2000.

Shock, James R. US Navy Airships 1915-1962: A History by Individual Airship. Edgewater, FL: Atlantis Productions, 1992, 2001.

Socrata, the Open Data Co. Airplane_Crashes_and_Fatalities_Since_1908(1). Accessed at: http://www.socrata.com/

United States Department of the Navy. Casualties: US Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured in Selected Accidents and Other Incidents Not Directly the Result of Enemy Action. Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center. 2008.

United States Department of the Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command. “U.S. Navy Ships Lost in Selected Storm/Weather Related Incidents. 6-3-2005. Accessed 7-1-2020 at: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/us-navy-ships-lost-in-selected-storm-weather-related-incidents.html

Vaeth, J. Gordon. They Sailed The Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2005.