USS Akron (ZRS-4) - "Coast-to-Coast" Flight & Second Accident (May 1932)

"Coast-to-Coast" Flight & Second Accident (May 1932)

Following the conclusion of those trial flights, Akron departed from Lakehurst on 8 May 1932, for the west coast. The airship proceeded down the eastern seaboard to Georgia and then across the gulf plain, continuing over Texas and Arizona. En route to Sunnyvale, California, Akron reached Camp Kearny in San Diego, on the morning of 11 May and attempted to moor. Since neither the trained ground handlers nor the specialized mooring equipment needed by an airship of Akron's size were present, the landing at Camp Kearny was fraught with danger. By the time the crew started the evaluation, the heat of the sun's rays had warmed the lifting helium gas, and the expenditure of fuel (40 short tons (36 t)) during the transcontinental trip had further lightened the airship, making the Akron all but uncontrollable.

The mooring cable was cut to avert a catastrophic nose-stand by the errant airship and Akron headed up. Most of the mooring crew—predominantly "boot" seamen from the Naval Training Station San Diego—let go of their lines. One man was carried 15 ft (4.6 m) into the air before he let go and suffered a broken arm while three others were carried up even farther. Two of them—Aviation Carpenter's Mate 3rd Class Robert H. Edsall and Apprentice Seaman Nigel M. Henton—fell to their deaths. The third—Apprentice Seaman C. M. "Bud" Cowart—clung desperately to his line and made himself fast to it before he was hoisted aboard Akron an hour later. Nevertheless, Akron managed to moor at Camp Kearny later that day and proceeded thence to Sunnyvale. The tragic accident was captured on newsreel film.