Death Rained from the Sky

From the May 6th Chicago Tribune's Chicago Flashback by Stephan Benzkofer. 

We've all heard the story of the crash of the Hindenburg, but nearly twenty years earlier, an airship also caught fire and crashed in downtown Chicago, killing 13 people.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company's Wingfoot Express airship was putting on a show when the 186-foot-long blimp suddenly caught fire and shortly before 5 PM, crashed into the Illinois Trust & Savings Bank at the northeast corner of Jackson Boulevard and LaSalle Street.

Fortunately, the bank had closed to customers earlier, but nearly 150bookkeepers and clerks were still sitting at their desks beneath the vaulted skylight of the two-and-a-half story building when the Express came breaking through and smashed to the floor with two rotary engines and two gas tanks which then exploded.

Eleven people in the bank and two on the blimp died and 26 were injured.  Even with all the damage, the bank was open for business the next day.

I'd never heard of this crash.

The Sky Was Really Falling.  --DaCoot