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
1929 Imperial Airways Handley Page W.10 crash 1929 Imperial Airways Handley Page W.10 crash The 1929 Imperial Airways Handley Page W.10 crash happened on 17 June 1929 when Handley Page W.10 G-EBMT suffered an engine failure and subsequently ditched in the English Channel off Dungeness with the loss of seven lives. The aircraft was operating an international scheduled flight from Croydon to Le Bourget Airport, Paris, France. The accident aircraft was Handley Page W.10 G-EBMT "City of Ottawa", c/n W10-4. It had been delivered to Imperial Airways on 25 December 1925. G-EBMT was operating an international scheduled flight from Croydon Airport to Zurich Airport, Switzerland via Paris