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 her directly over the Beauvais Ridge, an area notorious for turbulent wind conditions. At 02:00 the watch was changed, Second Officer Maurice Steff taking over the command from Irwin. The R101 was at this point "flying heavy", relying on dynamic lift generated by forward airspeed to maintain altitude, estimated by the Board of Inquiry as at least above the ground. At about 02:07 R101 went into a dive from which she slowly recovered, probably losing around . As it did so Rigger S. Church, who was returning to the crew quarters to come off duty, was sent forward to release