Airship N.S.11 crash
Royal Air Force NS class airship · Lightning strike (suspected)
From RAF Pulham to RAF Pulham
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 9 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
NS class airship
- Aircraft type
- NS CLASS AIRSHIP
- Category
- Blimp · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- NS11
- Operator
- Royal Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 9
- Route
- From RAF PulhamTo RAF Pulham
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Airship NS11 crash was an airship accident which occurred on 15 July 1919. The Royal Air Force (RAF) airship exploded off the east coast of England over the North Sea, killing all nine crew on board.
Accident
NS11 had taken off from RAF Pulham in Pulham St Mary, Norfolk, around midnight on the night of 14/15 July 1919 and was heading over the North Sea on a mine-hunting patrol. In the early hours of 15 July, she was seen to fly beneath a long "greasy black cloud" off the village of Cley next the Sea on the Norfolk coast when locals reported an abnormal noise from her engines (which may have suggested she was experiencing engine trouble). She was returning towards the coast when she exploded into a ball of flames, causing a vivid glare lasting for several minutes as the burning airship descended, plunging into the sea after a second explosion. None of the nine crew members on board the airship survived. The Sheringham lifeboat was launched but its crew could only find a small part of the aluminium wreckage.
The accident occurred less than 48 hours after the airship R34 arrived at RAF Pulham after a successful double-crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, including the first-ever east–west crossing by air.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The findings of the official Court of Enquiry were inconclusive, but amongst other possibilities it was thought that a lightning strike may have caused the explosion.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Airship N.S.11 crash” (revision 1339294746, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Airship N.S.11 crash
- Article
- Airship N.S.11 crash
- Revision
- 1339294746 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q15831524
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Airship N.S.11 crash" (page 40922903, revision 1339294746)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.