Posted on Jul 21, 2017
Disaster Blimp - Wingfoot Air Express - July 22, 1919
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Eleven persons were killed and twenty-eight injured when a gigantic dirigible on its test flight caught fire and fell 1,200 feet, crashing through the skylight of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank building, Jackson boulevard and La Salle street, shortly before 5 o clock yesterday afternoon.
Nine of the dead were employes of the bank, trapped and burned to death in a withering rain of fire caused by the explosion of the balloon’s gasoline tanks as they hit the floor of the bank rotunda, where over 150 bookkeepers and clerks, nearly all girls, were working.
The blimp, known as the “Wing Foot” express and owned by the Goodyear, Tire and Rubber company. of Akron, O., had been flying above the city intermittently for several hours when the accident occurred. Thousands witnessed it.
Spurt of Flami Starts Tragedy.
When approximately 1,200 feet above the bank a spurt of flame was seen to shoot from the gas bag near the center of the aircraft The crowds gathered on the streets to watch the flight saw the great machine buckle and quiver as it started on its fatal plunge.
Four of its five occupants, wearing parachutes, jumped. The fifth, unable to get away, was caught in the flaming gas bag and burned and crushed to death on the bank roof. Another’s parachute burst into flames and followed the balloon through the skylight, the man’s body crashing to the bank floor. A third man broke both legs as he landed and the other two, experienced balloonists, landed one on a roof and one in La Salle street. One of these escaped injuries and the other was only slightly hurt
There was nothing to warn the hundreds of of the institution of the coming tragedy. A shadow passed over the marble rotunda, where 150 were busy, and a terrifying crash followed. The bank’s closing hour for patrons had passed, but the clerks were still at work in various departments.
It seemed, according to the survivors, as if the entire bank was on fire. Breaking through the iron supports holding the glass overhead, the fusilage of the blimp, with two heavy rotary engines and two gasoline tanks, ashed to the floor.
Tanks Explode Among Bank Workdm
Instantly the tanks exploded, scattering a wave of flaming gasoline over the workers for a radius of fifty feet. A panic ensued. There were only two exits through which they could leave the wire cage which surrounded the rotunda.
Men and girls with clothing flaming fought their way through the exits. Girls on the second floor ran screaming to the window and several jumped to the street.
In an instant the marble rotunda was deserted except for the dead, whose bodies were buried under the flaming mass, licked to a white heat by the gasoline blaze, and the dying, who crawled feebly away from the scorching fire, their clothes burning off.
The intense heat made rescue work impossible until after the fire department arrived an a four-eleven alarm call. It was thirty minutes before the bodies under the craft s could be dragged cut Some were burned beyond recognition-
Meanwhile ambulances from every hospital and undertaking establishment near the center of the city came, and the police threw a cordon about the place. Many were found to have been more or less seriously cut by the shower of glass which preceded the explosion.
20,000 Watch Work of Rescue.
The rescue work was watched by a crowd of 20,000 an La Salle street and Jackson boulevard, while more thousands took places of vantage on the buildings nearby.
The cause of the fire which brought the flaming gas bag plunging down is not known. None of the crew could ascribe a definite reason. Several theories were offered, however. One was that a spark from the rotary motors, a dangerous type to be carried under inflammable gas bag, set the gas afire. Another was that the was overcharged and the sun s rays caused it to expand emd burst, the fire following the contact of the gas with sparks in the gas with sparks to the motors.
A third theory- was that the gas bag had been smoldering since the dirigible left Grant park ten minutes previous to the accident. Witnesses to the blimp s takeoff said that a mechanic had applied a blow torch to the propellers just before they were started to burn off the oil from the propeller bearings.
It was intended to charge the bag with a pe mixture of hydro- gen gas, which is not inflammable. It was conjectured, however, that a quantity of oxygen became mixed in the charging process, rendering a highly explosive combination
When J. A. Boettner, an employe of the rubber company and pilot of the craft, saw- the flicker of flame he yelled a warning to the other passengers and jumped from the fusilage.
Carl Weaver, mechanician, followed suit. His parachute caught fire and -he dropped like a shot through the skylight, his mangled body falling on the marble floor as the balloon engines and gas tanks struck. Earl H. Davenport, publicity man -for White City, tried to jump, but his parachute was held by the flaming bag and he dropped with the -wreck-to the bank roof, where his body was found by firemen.
Milton G. Norton, photographer for a’ morning newspaper, alighted on La Salle street, but both of his legs were broken and he received Internal injuries of a serious nature. Harry ‘Wacker, mechanician, was slightly injured, and Boettner alighted safely.
The others dead were crushed and burned in the rotunda of the bank. The body of one, believed to have been ‘ that of Miss Evelyn Meyers, was caught under one of the heavy rotary engines, and could not be dislodged the fire was put out.
The central portion of the bank was wrecked. Fire spread through all of the desks in the rotunda and rendered them a huge charred pile.
Where the gas bag lit and burned the roof caught fire, and it was nearly an hour before firemen could quench the flames.
https://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/wingfootexpress/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingfoot_Air_Express_crash
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ ltyc stephen LTC Stephen C. @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ ltc john LTC John Mohor @ maj william Maj William W. "Bill" Price @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ ssgt larry SSgt (Join to see) @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ sra christopher SrA Christopher Wright @ sra chris SrA Chris "Shadow" McGee @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ sgt david SGT (Join to see) @ sgt david SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 mark SP5 Mark Kuzinski @ sp5 robert SP5 Robert Ruck SCPO Morris Ramsey @ po3 tom PO3 Tom Howard Alan K.
Nine of the dead were employes of the bank, trapped and burned to death in a withering rain of fire caused by the explosion of the balloon’s gasoline tanks as they hit the floor of the bank rotunda, where over 150 bookkeepers and clerks, nearly all girls, were working.
The blimp, known as the “Wing Foot” express and owned by the Goodyear, Tire and Rubber company. of Akron, O., had been flying above the city intermittently for several hours when the accident occurred. Thousands witnessed it.
Spurt of Flami Starts Tragedy.
When approximately 1,200 feet above the bank a spurt of flame was seen to shoot from the gas bag near the center of the aircraft The crowds gathered on the streets to watch the flight saw the great machine buckle and quiver as it started on its fatal plunge.
Four of its five occupants, wearing parachutes, jumped. The fifth, unable to get away, was caught in the flaming gas bag and burned and crushed to death on the bank roof. Another’s parachute burst into flames and followed the balloon through the skylight, the man’s body crashing to the bank floor. A third man broke both legs as he landed and the other two, experienced balloonists, landed one on a roof and one in La Salle street. One of these escaped injuries and the other was only slightly hurt
There was nothing to warn the hundreds of of the institution of the coming tragedy. A shadow passed over the marble rotunda, where 150 were busy, and a terrifying crash followed. The bank’s closing hour for patrons had passed, but the clerks were still at work in various departments.
It seemed, according to the survivors, as if the entire bank was on fire. Breaking through the iron supports holding the glass overhead, the fusilage of the blimp, with two heavy rotary engines and two gasoline tanks, ashed to the floor.
Tanks Explode Among Bank Workdm
Instantly the tanks exploded, scattering a wave of flaming gasoline over the workers for a radius of fifty feet. A panic ensued. There were only two exits through which they could leave the wire cage which surrounded the rotunda.
Men and girls with clothing flaming fought their way through the exits. Girls on the second floor ran screaming to the window and several jumped to the street.
In an instant the marble rotunda was deserted except for the dead, whose bodies were buried under the flaming mass, licked to a white heat by the gasoline blaze, and the dying, who crawled feebly away from the scorching fire, their clothes burning off.
The intense heat made rescue work impossible until after the fire department arrived an a four-eleven alarm call. It was thirty minutes before the bodies under the craft s could be dragged cut Some were burned beyond recognition-
Meanwhile ambulances from every hospital and undertaking establishment near the center of the city came, and the police threw a cordon about the place. Many were found to have been more or less seriously cut by the shower of glass which preceded the explosion.
20,000 Watch Work of Rescue.
The rescue work was watched by a crowd of 20,000 an La Salle street and Jackson boulevard, while more thousands took places of vantage on the buildings nearby.
The cause of the fire which brought the flaming gas bag plunging down is not known. None of the crew could ascribe a definite reason. Several theories were offered, however. One was that a spark from the rotary motors, a dangerous type to be carried under inflammable gas bag, set the gas afire. Another was that the was overcharged and the sun s rays caused it to expand emd burst, the fire following the contact of the gas with sparks in the gas with sparks to the motors.
A third theory- was that the gas bag had been smoldering since the dirigible left Grant park ten minutes previous to the accident. Witnesses to the blimp s takeoff said that a mechanic had applied a blow torch to the propellers just before they were started to burn off the oil from the propeller bearings.
It was intended to charge the bag with a pe mixture of hydro- gen gas, which is not inflammable. It was conjectured, however, that a quantity of oxygen became mixed in the charging process, rendering a highly explosive combination
When J. A. Boettner, an employe of the rubber company and pilot of the craft, saw- the flicker of flame he yelled a warning to the other passengers and jumped from the fusilage.
Carl Weaver, mechanician, followed suit. His parachute caught fire and -he dropped like a shot through the skylight, his mangled body falling on the marble floor as the balloon engines and gas tanks struck. Earl H. Davenport, publicity man -for White City, tried to jump, but his parachute was held by the flaming bag and he dropped with the -wreck-to the bank roof, where his body was found by firemen.
Milton G. Norton, photographer for a’ morning newspaper, alighted on La Salle street, but both of his legs were broken and he received Internal injuries of a serious nature. Harry ‘Wacker, mechanician, was slightly injured, and Boettner alighted safely.
The others dead were crushed and burned in the rotunda of the bank. The body of one, believed to have been ‘ that of Miss Evelyn Meyers, was caught under one of the heavy rotary engines, and could not be dislodged the fire was put out.
The central portion of the bank was wrecked. Fire spread through all of the desks in the rotunda and rendered them a huge charred pile.
Where the gas bag lit and burned the roof caught fire, and it was nearly an hour before firemen could quench the flames.
https://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/wingfootexpress/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingfoot_Air_Express_crash
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ ltyc stephen LTC Stephen C. @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ ltc john LTC John Mohor @ maj william Maj William W. "Bill" Price @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ ssgt larry SSgt (Join to see) @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ sra christopher SrA Christopher Wright @ sra chris SrA Chris "Shadow" McGee @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ sgt david SGT (Join to see) @ sgt david SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 mark SP5 Mark Kuzinski @ sp5 robert SP5 Robert Ruck SCPO Morris Ramsey @ po3 tom PO3 Tom Howard Alan K.
Aviation
American History
Death
Chicago
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Thanks, my friend SGT John " Mac " McConnell for sharing the video account of the Wingfoot Air Express Blimp disaster of July 22, 1919.
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