1919

Wingfoot Air Express Crash

Wingfoot Air Express, a dirigible operated by Goodyear Tire, caught fire and exploded. Burning debris from the blimp crashed into the skylight of the Illinois Trust and Savings Building at LaSalle and Jackson and rained down on bank workers. Three people on board the blimp and ten people in the bank were killed. At the time, the crash was the worst airship disaster in the United States. 

The explosion took place on July 21, only days before the beginning of rioting. Some credited the disaster with raising tensions in the city. Irwin St. John Tucker, a journalist, priest, and activist, wrote about the events that July in a letter to his family. "We have been having excitement on top of alarm the past week," he explained, crediting "that blimp disaster" as the first in a series of events that left Chicago on edge in the days leading up to the race riot.

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