5 Dramatic Airship Accidents You've Never Heard Of 

A third problem with the Shenandoah was that its design was based on a German Zeppelin shot down over England in WW I. These Zeppelins were designed to bomb England from high altitudes (for an airship, over 10,000 feet) and thus their structures were made as light as possible which was not strong enough to withstand the turbulent skies over the American Midwest.

Glad someone covered other airship disasters besides the Hindenburg! Well Done Mike!

This brings back some memories for me. As a little girl in the 3rd grade I did a presentation on airship disasters. I had gone through many a library book that covered these. It always fascinated me how so much effort went into such a disaster prone aircraft.

The N4 Italia disaster would make an episode on its own. It was returning from a mission to the North Pole when it crashed on to the Arctic ice. The rescue of its crew became the World’s biggest news story as it featured some of the most famous explorers in the World. One of them, Roald Amundsen - a national hero in Norway and the first man to the South Pole - disappeared during a rescue mission and was never seen again.

It's worth mentioning that, due to the changes implemented after the loss of the USS Akron, when her sister ship, USS Macon, crashed off the coast of California two years later, only two of her crew died. 70 men out of a crew of 72 survived thanks to readily available life jackets and rafts.

One of my great-great-grandfathers died in the wreck of the US Army semi-rigid airship Roma. He was from Dayton, and so he grew up around the very early aviation experiments, and he even served in WWI with the US Army aviators. A very interesting life, unfortunately cut short in 1922. I have scans of his orders to the Roma from a bunch of old documents I found at a great Aunt’s house.

The story of the Italia is one of my favorite survival stories. 1928 going over the north pole it crashed on the ice. Men in the control car were stranded on the ice. The men in the envelope floated into the clouds and were never seen again! It was a three month ordeal to save the men on the ground. One plane tried to pickup survivors and crash landed and the pilot was stuck with them for weeks as well!

The Shenandoah was not the first airship to cross the Atlantic. That feat belongs to Britain's R34 airship which accomplished this in 1919.

Fascinating as usual. Mike Brady never fails to dazzle and illuminate his audience. With appropriate video clips underscoring his narrative, we get the whole picture of the events he's describing so vividly. It's quite a talent. Thanks, Mike, for another engrossing chapter in your omnibus of travel.

They got the word "ship" in them so it looks like you found a loophole in your content 😄 I like it 👍🏼

A great story well-told as usual Mike! There's one sordid detail I can add to the looting of the Shenendoah's wreck. Someone stole the Annapolis class ring from the corpse of the ships commander, Commander Zachary Lansdowne. Ghoulish, to say the least. It was eventually returned to the Lansdowne family years later. "Shenendoah" by the way is an American Indian word meaning "Daughter of the stars." Interestingly, aside from those early disasters the US Navy's blimp program was VERY successful and lasted into the early 1960s when technology finally overtook it. It's been said during WW2 no convoy escorted by US Navy blimps lost a ship to a U-Boot.

"safety valves were removed" - straight to the famous last worlds list :)

I have seen Squarespace sponsor messages on countless channels and videos, but can honestly say this is the best I've ever seen. Love the airship vid btw!

You could easily do a 2nd part or even 3 part as it seems every big airship except the first (the Graf Zeppelin which was retired, don't count the R-100 as it was only in service 1 year) seemed to have issues. Macon, R-101, Italia, R-38, Roma, Dixmude (50 dead in that)

The Akron and Macon were such cool ships. I remember a carrier airship based off them in Crimson Skies, thought it was such a cool steam-punk design. Then I found out they actually existed. Very cool.

No better way to start a Monday than having Mike tell me about some terrible tragedies. Another fantastic Video!

This was very interesting! Airships had a lot more use than I previously thought. What a sight it must have been to see one of these behemoths towering over New York.... These make the "blimps" around today look like absolute toys.

As a lifelong Ohioan, I've driven past the crash site of the Shenandoah plenty of times. There is now a sign that can be seen from the freeway marking the crash site. I also live an hour or so from the city of Akron (probably the namesake of the USS Akron) and have had the opportunity to drive past the hanger where the Goodyear blimp was house for many years. Up until recently (like the last five years), we used to see the Goodyear blimp all the time dragging advertisements behind it or the side lit up with some cool animation. It was neat to see. Thanks for the sharing this video!

Thank you for bringing these really interesting stories to the forefront. Onwards and upwards :)

The R38 crashed over the River Humber in 1921, in sight of Hull Yorkshire, with the loss of 44 lives. Hull itself has a rich maritime history. HMS Bounty was built there, Joseph Boxhall was from the city, Grace Darling's Forfarshire sailed from there as 'did' Robinson Crusoe. There's also a ship on Lake Titicaca that was built in Hull then shipped to Peru in pieces, transported by rail, and then assembled.

Airships are my absolute favorite mode of transportation. A personal research project of mine several years ago was to track the fate of every airship ever built--how many crashed, how many were scrapped, and how many just fell into disrepair and weren't worth spending more time and money to maintain? Very cool to stumble upon this video; I had forgotten about most of these since then!

Brilliant video! Airships are absolutely fascinating but not often covered outside the biggest events ("Oh the humanity!"), so it was great to hear less talked about stories. The first one doing a nose-stand on the tower is quite the sight, I can't believe it wasn't damaged. And while it didn't last long, Akron's plane deployment system was really quite incredible... I've seen footage of pilots clambering out to those biplanes, releasing themselves, flying away & then somehow managing to reattach themselves without turning both aircraft into a giant fireball. Absolute madmen!

I've only heard of the USS Akron disaster. However, I think the most dramatic airship disaster was the July 21, 1919 Wingfoot crash into the Illinois Trust & Savings Bank. It crashed through the giant skylight over the banking floor dropping it's engine on an employee who returned from sick leave a day early to show what a good worker he was - spilled burning fuel all over the head teller; and someone who parachuted off of the airship landed on the Board of Trade building before being pulled to his death because his parachute got stuck on the falling wreck. There were other deaths in the bank as well as the crew.

This is great. Your channel just gets better and better as it grows. Thank you!

Nice one Mike and on quite a different subject too! I'd heard of the USS Acron but not the others. The airship that finished up pointing vertically up from it's mooring mast did produce a somewhat comical picture.. I also liked your comment at the end about staying on terra firma, or, as my late Dad used to put it, "The more firmer the less terror".

The Shenandoah was just like when the “Eldia” was beached on Nauset Beach, Cape Cod back in 1984. They created mini-economies and became tourist attractions.

The US Navy’s rigid airship program as a whole feels like a bundle, USS Los Angeles too was used as a test bed for the aircraft retrieval system to eventually be designed into Akron. There’s also Akron’s sister ship USS Macon who actually ended up flying too high at some point during her crash, though with far fewer loss of life. The sad thing about being into airships is that there simply isn’t a wide breath of information to get into but it’s very nice of you to bring some obscure knowledge to the forefront here.

1:26 "holy fuck I can see New York" 😂

Lovely video. Your work is amazing. Thank you so much for all you do.

it's so awesome to finally see airships on the channel, i've been looking forward to you covering the akron for a long time. great storytelling as always, mike

Always enjoy your information! Thank you 😊

This video was great! I definitely don’t mind a different kind of video like this. Please make more videos about these old airships, still waiting for that R101 video.

Yep. Stay away from gasbags! Great episode Mike. Most interesting 👍

Thanks, I am from Bulgaria and I follow your channel mainly for Titanic related topics. It's interesting to hear about airships here. I was recently in the Yambol museum of Battle Glory and among tanks and guns there is a room dedicated to that record zeppelin flight - a nice diorama of LZ-104 over its hangar in Yambol (Bulgaria). Hope that's interesting info for some of the viewers.

Babe wake up new Oceanliner Designs video is out

Well done Captain Mike, another fantastic video and I liked the slight change in having airship disasters instead. Congratulations on O. D. being 5 years old, here's to another 5! 😊👍🚀

This was excellent! I'd love to see more about airship design.

I’m glad that you are talking about Airships!

@oceanliner Designs, If you're branching out why not look at the story of the California clipper (a Pan Am boeing 314 sea plane) which had to fly west the long way back from new zealand to new york in WW2, after getting cut off there in December 1941

Always glad to see a new vid from my friend, Mike Brady!

Another interesting airship story: during WWI, the Zeppelin L31 attempted to carry out a bombing raid on British soil, but near the Thames Estuary, she was attacked by HMTB (His Majesty’s Torpedo Boat) 117, which opened fire on the Zeppelin with help from a lighthouse. Tracer rounds from 117’s guns struck L31’s tail, causing her crew to abort their attack. For this, HMTB 117’s captain was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. The captain’s name? Charles Herbert Lightoller. No, I’m serious.

Was just reading about the Italia and Akron yesterday.

WOW! I didn't know about all of these. Great video.

Wow, I actually hadn't heard of any of these! And I love airships! Fantastic to see them on the channel! I'd love to see some more soon!

I've seen that picture of the Los Angeles vertical over the mooring mast a thousand times and I've _always_ thought it was a photoshop...

This is realy interesting. Please do more disaster stuff like this

Happy 5th birthday to a spectacularly large toddler!!! Your shows are so interesting, I never miss a single word or detail because of how engaging everything is!!! Happy 5th birthday and I hope Australian Kindergarten treats you well Mr. Brady!!!! Edit: this is obviously done in good spirit, no I don’t actually think the man is five years old.

great video!! as an Ohio native who used to live in Akron and who regularly drove past the Goodyear Airdock where the USS Akron was constructed i was happy to see that ship mentioned here. (Also i can't help but giggle at people who aren't from the area trying to pronounce 'Akron' haha)

The R101? She has some 'maiden voyage' similarities with a well-known oceanliner.

Love your “expansion”! Would love to hear your take on more of those “tragic incidents” that occurred more regularly back in the day.

You have to try a hot air balloon ride!! It's so peaceful. Book an exclusive ride, therefore you're not going to be packed in like cattle. It'll just be you and your guests. Awesome experience!!!

I can’t believe this type of content is free. Also love the fact your doing videos outside of ocean liners!

Great video Mike, thank you! There are a couple there I've not heard of before. Are you planning drawing any of the airships in the future?

Always looking dapper as usual Mike 👍

Awesome to hear Airship history, seems very under appreciated!

Love this, Mike Brady, so polished and professional, sharp good guy

Great work Oceanliner Designs.

I often wonder what experiencing aviation in those years would have been like, but somehow I feel like I'm not missing much when it comes to blimps! Awesome content as always 👌🏻

Nice with a different kind of video, Skyliner Designs. Airships have always been fascinating to me.

Wonderful share. Thank you.

Beatifully done Mike! 🍸

Thank you for your videos! You are the most interesting waiter I know.

Nice video! Would love to see more airship content from you

My favorite weird airship tale is the L-8. She left San Francisco on antisubmarine patrol then returned...without her crew. In the mid-2000s I saw a zeppelin with my own eyes. It was surreal as it slowly cruised in over the Golden Gate then passed nearby. The company didn't last long, tourist flights turned out to be economically unworkable, but it certainly was a sight to see.

If you think kids only start talking at 5 we need to sit down and have a chat 😂

Cool info! Loved it! Thanks!

Intriguing stuff. The oceanliner content is fascinating but I am totally here for branching off into other vessels ;)

I appreciate that you're incorporating dirigibles into your content. Thanks. Airships and early ocean liners, a long with skyscrapers were my obsession 20 years ago in highschool. Still love em. If they only had RU-vid then. Ha. Keep it up man. 👍

It's too bad that the era of the airship was short lived. Passenger airships specifically looked like a great experience. I'd prefer them over cramped planes where you can barely walk anywhere except to the bathroom or maybe a bar if the plane even offers that, which most planes don't. Sure, planes are faster but I'd rather a more leisurely way of travel and enjoy the experience of moving about and socializing with other passengers. This is also the reason why I prefer ocean liner travel as well. I can just imagine what passenger airships would be like today if they were actually successful.

The only other airship disaster I had heard of before this video was the British R-101 mainly thanks to a Doctor Who audio adventure covering the disaster but adding a twist to it.

I have heard about all of these, but that speaks more to my autism, and less their commonality.

An interesting video, thanks, Mike, for the excellent pictures and details of these events. My grandfather, Capt Donald E Harkness, witnessed the bombs falling from Zeppelin L-13 on London on Sept. 8, 1915, as it flew directly over the house where he was staying. This was one of the first and most successful of all the Zeppelin raids of the war and it left him with a burning desire to shoot the things from the sky. He soon thereafter enrolled in the Ruffy-Baumann School of Flying, obtained his flying "ticket" and having shown promise secured an officer's commission in the UK's Royal Naval Air Service. While getting flight experience on various types of aircraft at Eastchurch and Dover he was selected to become one of the first pilots to be stationed at No. 5 Wing, Coudekerque, France, and had a highly successful career bombing ammo dumps, German aerodromes and assorted military depots in France and Belgium. He never got the chance to shoot down a Zeppelin, but he did earn the DSC for destroying a Zeppelin shed at Evere, Brussels on Aug. 9, 1916. He died in 1929 in Auckland, New Zealand (his native country) while test flying a Dornier Libelle II flying boat with which he had hoped to start an airline in the country. He lived a short 35 years but had a fascinating life, I wish I knew him personally. 100 years after the war I wrote a book on his adventures based on his diaries called A WW1 Adventure, The Life and Times of RNAS Bomber Pilot Donald E. Harkness. BTW. It took 47 days for him to travel by ocean-liner from Wellington, NZ to London, in 1915. The voyage alone was enough to drive some passengers batty.

Just one correction, the first transatlantic crossing by an airship was by the UK's R - 34 on July 2, 1919. Thanks for your videos I enjoy your work.

I enjoyed this change! Keep it up!

"Holy #$%& I can see New York!" made me laugh harder than I should have.

This was brilliant. Definitely do more!! And a shift from your oceanliners and warships.... that's what we know you for.... to many people discuss aircraft, many pilots and I love there stuff, but ya don't see them talking about airships, and it's an interesting subject there engineering was a marvel for the time, they were not just big balloons!!... brilliantly narrates to, can tell you did this video because you are interested not because somebody asked! People may have, but don't believe that's why you made this video. It's a cracking subject!!!! Muts nuts mate!!!

I'm also very interested in airships! I love seeing you branch out!

Another great watch, thanks.... How about a vid "RMS Aquitania Through The Decades" The Aquitania had a very long career (1914 - 1950) for a four funnel ocean liner. During her refits she never went to three or even two funnels, she went to the breakers yard with all four still intact.

Quality Sir, bravo.

For those of us that live around Akron, lots of people have stories. i, myself have a piece of Blimp skin that my Uncle Chick had from working in the Blimp Dock during WWII. When my wife and i got married, our landlord worked at Goodyear Aerospace and told me about finding Goodyear Zeppelin Corp. boxes when cleaning out the Blimp Dock. This was the home of the F2G Super Corsair, of which 10 were built - an FG-1D with some airframe modifications and a P&W R-4360 bolted on the front.

Awesome! More on airships please

This video was amazing! I'm so glad you did one on some airships, would it be possible if you did a full-length video on the Graf Zeppelin? It's arguably the most successful Zeppelin of all time

When the Shenandoah broke up over Ohio, the lead crewmember who brought the men together to save their lives was also involved with the U.S.S Los Angeles flipping incident, and a certain other large airship in New Jersey, during 1937. The officer's name? Charles Emery Rosendahl.

Thank you for the enlightenment. I've never heard of 3 of these disasters.

Lol, thanks to your perfect pronunciation yours are the only videos that the auto generated subtitles are perfect

Thanks for the historical videos

As a Canadian, I very much appreciated that you pronounced Newfoundland correctly. It's refreshing to see a RU-vidr that does their research on pronunciation instead of just saying " I'm going to get this wrong ha, ha." Job well done!

If you haven't heard it, I recommend the Iron Maiden song, Empire of the Clouds. It's an eighteen minute epic that tells the story of British airship R-101. It's a fantastic song.

congrqatulations. I love your videos. They are always interesting and informative. And narrated in your bubbly manner.

Mike, you might want to do a show on the USS Patoka which was the converted tanker, with the mooring mast added to her stern, the US Navy used as a floating base for their airships and is seen in many videos.

Keep up the great work amazing videos :)

That was an enjoyable little detour. Actually, given the record of rigid airship travel, it's not surprising that most people would decide that it isn't that far to walk. Very well done, Mike.

Really enjoy your voice and videos. Thank you 😊

Wow didn't know there were so many airship accidents aside from the hindenburg awesome thanks for this

Nice presentation and photos, and LOVE that there’s zero/very quiet music

Hi Mike Thanks so much for your fascinating content. Any chance you could make an 'anatomy of an airship' segment? I've always wondered how they worked. Best wishes from another Melburnian

Incredible video as always man! Your videos are so inspiring to me as a fellow content creator. Keep up the good work!

i love airships! i remember in sixth grade in like 2013 we had these books about famous disasters, and each week we read about one and answered dumb questions about the article, dumb middle school stuff... i remember the hindenburg vividly, i just thought it looked so cool, and the fact that to this day it is still one of the largest objects to fly is incredible!

Two excellent books on the history of airships are John Toland's "Ships In The Sky: The Story Of The Great Dirigibles" and Douglas Botting's "Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine: The Great Zeppelin And The Dawn Of Air Travel". I'm surprised you didn't mention an incident with the Akron about an incident that saw one member of the ground crew taken on a wild ride clinging for dear life to a mooring line when a gust of wind lifted the airship and its ground crew into the air.

Good old utube, I’m subscribed to your channel but ut doesn’t bring up many new videos. Anyway, thank you for this well sourced lesson on a few of my favorite airships. There are many more with very colorful histories and back stories. The British R101, USA Macon, Graf Zeppelin etc etc. thanks again from Alaska