Airship Roma Disaster

KV-9

The U.S. Army dirigible Roma crashed and exploded just west of here during a test flight on 21 Feb. 1922. The crash, the deadliest involving a U.S. hydrogen airship, killed 34 of the 45 officers, crewmen, and civilians on board. Roma, purchased from the Italian government, was based at Langley Field in Hampton and had been plagued with troubles since arriving in the United States in 1921. An investigation blamed the heavy loss of life on the use of hydrogen, a highly inflammable gas. After 1922, U.S. airships were inflated with helium. In later years, the story of Roma was largely forgotten.

Department of Historic Resources, 2017

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Nancy E. Sheppard, The Airship ROMA Disaster in Hampton Roads (Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2016). www.blimpinfo.com/history Washington Post, 27 Feb., 18, 19, 26 Oct. 1922, 25 April 1924, 21 Jan. 1928, 12 July 1963. Washington Evening Star, 16 July 1921, 12 March 1922. P.E. Van Nostrand, “Lessons Learned from Roma Accident,” U.S. Air Service, vol. 7, no. 2 (March 1922). United States Naval Institute Proceedings, vol. 48, no. 227 (Jan. 1922). Charlotte News and Evening Observer, 26 July 1922. “The Roma Airship Disaster Over Norfolk,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 29 June 2010. Larry Hall, “Crash of Dirigible Roma Killed 34 in Norfolk in 1922,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 18 Feb. 2009.