Event    From 5/10/1930  To 5/10/1930

Crash of the R101 airship

Categories: Tragedy

In the 1920s the British government was hoping airships would provide a means of transport to the far-flung Empire. Two vehicles were being trialled: the R100 and the R101. On its first overseas flight the R101 crashed at Beauvais, north of Paris. Of the 54 people on board 48 were killed.

The R100 had successfully crossed the Atlantic but was immediately grounded and in 1931 scrapped.

No film exists of the crash (though you may be familiar with the horrific Hindenburg footage) but there is film of the start of R101's final flight and the wreckage.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Crash of the R101 airship

Commemorated ati

Westminster Hall - R101

Plaque unveiled by Angela Smith Baroness Smith of Basildon, together with mem...

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Other Subjects

William Riley

William Riley

Drowned in the 1898 HMS Albion disaster, aged 11. Buried in grave 4 at the memorial in East London Cemetery.

Person, Children, Tragedy

1 memorial
Benjamin Haydon

Benjamin Haydon

Historical painter and diarist. Born Plymouth. Not a successful man; Haydon's biographer, Paul O'Keefe, says that Haydon has been called "the William McGonagall of British painting". One morning af...

Person, Art, Tragedy

1 memorial
Rebecca Goossen

Rebecca Goossen

Trainee architect, 29, died after she was caught on the inside of a left-turning cement mixer as she cycled to work at Metropolitan Workshop in Cowcross Street. She was living in Bethnal Green but ...

Person, Cyclist, Tragedy, Germany

1 memorial
Jeffroy Ellison

Jeffroy Ellison

One of 4 friends of Paul Dunne, who were killed in a car crash on the approach to the Blackwall Tunnel, on the way to the funeral.

Person, Friend / family, Tragedy

1 memorial
Joshua Ives Iliffe

Joshua Ives Iliffe

Non-British, killed by the Bali bomb.

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial