R101 lengthening the ship by to add another gasbag, the R101 crashed in France during its maiden overseas voyage on 5 October 1930, killing 48 of the 54 people on board. Among the passengers killed were Lord Thomson, the Air Minister who had initiated the programme, senior government officials, and almost all the dirigible's designers from the Royal Airship Works. The crash of R101 effectively ended British airship development, and was one of the worst airship accidents of the 1930s. The loss of life was more than the 36 killed in the highly public "Hindenburg" disaster of 1937, though fewer than
R101 airship. It was decided to repair these at the mast and to add more strengthening bands. This was done by the end of the day but the next day a second, shorter, split occurred. This was dealt with in the same way, and it was decided that if the reinforcing bands were added to the repaired area the scheduled appearance at the RAF pageant at Hendon could be made. R101 made three flights in June, totalling 29 hours 34 minutes duration. On 26 June a short proving flight was made, the controls, no longer servo-operated, being described as "powerful and