Zodiac balloon accident
balloon · Crash
From Aero club park at St. Cloud to an unrecorded destination
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
- 5 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 5
- Survivors
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
balloon
- 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
- Unknown
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aero club park at St. CloudTo not recorded
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Zodiac balloon accident was the crash of a French military balloon at Noisy-le-Grand, France, on 17 April 1913, which killed five.
Accident
The spherical French military balloon Zodiac, inflated with "ordinary gas", departed from the Aero club park at St. Cloud, on 17 April 1913, shortly before 2 p.m., with five aboard, including "military aeronauts" Capt. Clavenad, Capt. De Noue, Lt. de Vaissalot, and Artilleryman Rechy, and civilian pilot Aumont-Thiéville. The craft was carried over Paris by a strong westerly wind towards Fontenay-sous-Bois. At 1430 hrs., M. Luisgnann, a cafe proprietor, observed the aeronauts throwing out ballast. The balloon was flying very low and a moment later the car of the balloon collided with a chimney and was thrown violently on its side. The car then cleared the chimney and the balloon proceeded.
The occupants signaled distress, some apparently injured. The balloon was then blown against the side of a house, crashed into some telegraph wires, and then was blown away towards Villiers-sur-Marne. A few minutes later an explosion was heard, and the car hurtled to the ground. Three of the aeronauts were killed outright, one died on the way to a hospital and the other died after reaching there.
Two officers - Lieutenant de None and Lieutenant Vassalot de Regne - and Sergeant Richy [note variation in spellings from another account] were dead. A civilian named Aumont Thieville died soon thereafter. The fifth victim, Captain Clavenad, expired at 9 p.m. on 17 April.
A wire service report gave the accident location as over Villiers-sur-Marne.
Hilaire de Vasselot de Régné was one of the victims. The civilian was Jacques Aumont-Thiéville.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Zodiac balloon accident” (revision 1339293705, 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: Zodiac balloon accident
- Article
- Zodiac balloon accident
- Revision
- 1339293705 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q33129387
- 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 "Zodiac balloon accident" (page 54511606, revision 1339293705)
- Date
- Wikipedia article text, read with AI assistance: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia article text, read with AI assistance: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia article text, read with AI assistance: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): The balloon was a French military balloon crewed mainly by military aeronauts, so this was a military flight. The article: "the crash of a French military balloon at Noisy-le-Grand, France, on 17 April 1913"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia article text, read with AI assistance: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.