Wingfoot Air Express – The First Airship Disaster

On Monday, July 21, 1919, the Wingfoot Air Express (owned by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company) crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, with the loss of 13 lives. This was the worst airship disaster in the US until the Zeppelin airship, Hindenburg, crashed in 1937. Of the 13 who died, one was a crew member, two were passengers, while the remaining 10 they were bank employees in the building below.

The Wingfoot Air Express was carrying passengers from Grant Park to White City Amusement Park when, at an altitude of approximately 1,200 feet, the aircraft caught fire over the Chicago Loop. Once the crew realized the aircraft was lost, the pilot and chief mechanic parachuted to safety along with a third person who broke both legs and later died in hospital.

The Illinois Trust & Savings Bank building at the corner of LaSalle Street and Jackson Boulevard housed 150 employees who were closing after business (the fire was reported to have started at 4:55 p.m.) in the bank’s main hall. The main room was lit by a large skylight and debris from the Wingfoot Air Express hit the bank skylight directly, causing burning debris to fall into the room below. In addition to the ten employees who died, 27 staff members were also injured.

After the accident, the Chicago City Council imposed a ban on hydrogen-filled blimps from flying over populated areas of the city. Airships’ home base, Grant Park Airstrip, was also closed shortly after the accident.

Published in honor of those who lost their lives while working at the bank, in a catastrophe that left all officers and employees on strike.

THE GREAT TRAGEDY

A mass of burning debris came out of the clear sky and crashed through the large skylight of this bank, killing and injuring the Illinois Trust family. A large blimp flying over the loop caught fire three hundred meters above the ground and hurtled like a flaming comet toward Earth. The finger of fate had selected the skylight of this building among the hundreds of surrounding flat roofs, on which the airship would crash.

This great tragedy resulted in the death of ten people from the bank and the injury of twenty-seven others, leaving an unforgettable shadow over the entire institution. Clerks and officers were busy closing business for the day on July 21. It had been a great day. Monday almost invariably brings more business than other days of the week. Many of the employees were already on their way home. Those still at work were putting the finishing touches on the day’s work and would have gone home very soon.

Suddenly, as if the whole roof were collapsing, there was a great crash, and through the skylight the huge fierce airship descended with its twisted iron and heavy mechanism, passed the balcony and descended to the first floor over the mountains. heads of the employees who were working under the big skylight.

from The Columns of the Illinois Trust & Savings Bank, Chicago [special memorial issue]: 3, July 1919,