The Joint Committee to Investigate Dirigible Disasters was created by House Concurrent Resolution 15,

73rd Congress The 73rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1933, ...

, to investigate the cause of the ''Akron'' disaster and the wrecks of other Army and Navy dirigibles and to determine responsibility. The committee was also directed to inquire generally into the question of the utility of dirigibles in military and naval establishments and make recommendations to the Senate and House of Representatives regarding their future use. The committee was created after the 1933 crash of the U.S.S. ''Akron'', a

dirigible An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

designed for the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation of

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 C ...

. The U.S.S. ''Akron'' made its maiden flight on September 23, 1931. The design of the ''Akron'' supposedly had resolved previous safety problems involving rigid airships, but, on April 4, 1933, the ''Akron'' crashed just off the coast of New Jersey under stormy conditions. Of the ship's company of 77 officers and men, 74 servicemen, including Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, lost their lives. Its final report was submitted on June 14, 1933 (Senate Document 75, 73rd Congress, 1st session, Serial 9748). Colonel

Henry Breckenridge Henry Skillman Breckinridge (May 25, 1886 – May 2, 1960) was an American lawyer and politician who was a member of the prominent Breckinridge family and served as the United States Assistant Secretary of War from 1913 to 1916. During the Lind ...

, former Assistant Secretary of War, served as counsel for the joint committee. Senator

William H. King William Henry King (June 3, 1863November 27, 1949) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist from Salt Lake City, Utah. As a Democrat, King represented Utah in the United States Senate from 1917 until 1941. Life King was born in Fillmore, U ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

served as chairman. Representative

John J. Delaney John Joseph Delaney (August 21, 1878 – November 18, 1948) was an American lawyer and politician who served ten terms as a United States representative from New York from 1918 to 1919, and then from 1931 to 1948. He was elected to an 11th ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

was chairman of the subcommittee that gathered the data and facts and arranged a program as to the method of investigation.

References

*''This article contains public domain material from {{NARA catalog record, 10461044''. Dirigible Disasters Accidents and incidents involving balloons and airships Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1933

See also

References