Crash of dirigible Roma killed 34 in Norfolk in 1922

Fifteen years before the Hindenburg's fiery destruction in New Jersey claimed 36 lives, a similar dirigible disaster occurred in Virginia.

Unlike the Hindenburg's highly publicized crash, the Roma's final minutes in Norfolk in 1922 were not captured on newsreels. The Roma was forgotten quickly, and its lesson was easy to ignore.

Designed and built by Italian engineers in 1919, the Roma arrived in the United States six months before it crashed. The U.S. government had purchased the 410-foot airship from the Italian government in early 1921 for the Army Air Service. Its $200,000 price was considered a bargain, but flaws soon became apparent.

The most obvious shortcoming was the Roma's weak and balky motors. Army officials, anxious to maintain the Army's progress in dirigible flight, ordered its six Italian-made motors replaced with the latest high-powered American motors. The Air Service scheduled a test flight for the new engines Feb. 21, 1922.

The next morning's Richmond Times-Dispatch carried front-page news that the Roma had crashed and burned during the test flight over Norfolk, killing 34 of the 45 people on board.

Accounts of survivors and witnesses indicated the flight started well. The drone of the powerful new engines caught the attention of hundreds on the ground as the airship sailed from Hampton's Langley Field toward Norfolk.

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The Roma faltered shortly before 2 p.m. "The ship nosed down steeply," said an Associated Press report. As the Roma neared the ground, witnesses saw crew members throwing equipment, tools and personal belongings overboard in frantic efforts to slow the descent.

The Roma crashed near the Quartermaster Depot at the Hampton Roads Army Terminal, now Norfolk International Terminals. The airship hit power lines, exploded in flames and rolled over, trapping men riding in the keel's cabin above the burning gasbag with its 11 hydrogen-filled cells.

"Just as the Roma neared the wires, two men were seen to leap," said The Associated Press. "As the stricken, flaming monster writhed in her first death agony, 10 more dropped from doors or ports or through holes they tore in the fabric."

Three fire units from Norfolk and the nearby Army and Navy bases were at the scene in minutes, but the flammable hydrogen in the gasbag and the gasoline that fueled the engines made the incineration intense.

"Long after dark," The Associated Press reported, "the ship was still a mass of flames." Rescue was impossible. "All who survived escaped by jumping. The others, pinned in the hull of the fallen bag, were burned to death."

Witnesses were in shock. "They were hauling away bodies burned to crisps," one said.

The Army issued to survivors "strict orders" to remain silent until an investigation was completed and a report submitted to the War Department. The Army finished the report in March, and its findings were released in July.

The Army concluded the crash resulted from a domino effect of systems failures unrelated to the new motors. Failure of the air-intake mechanisms had allowed the airship to bend and twist until the rudder was dislodged, making steering impossible. But hydrogen gas was the major culprit in the lethal outcome.

"Undoubtedly," the Army report concluded, "the loss of life in this accident would not have been so great if the supporting medium in this envelope had been a nonflammable, nonexplosive gas such as helium."

After the crash, Congress authorized funds to expand development of America's helium reserves, the largest in the world. The U.S. government severely restricted helium exports, however, and the German dirigible Hindenburg was filled with volatile hydrogen when it crashed and burned in 1937.