Chicago, IL Goodyear Blimp Falls into Building, Jul 1919

INVESTIGATION INTO CAUSE OF GIANT BALLOON'S FALL INTO BANK, KILLING 11, IS BEGUN.

Chicago's Weirdest Tragedy Will Result in First Set of City Aerial Navigation Laws in World -- 28 Persons Hurt.

Chicago, July 22 – Federal, state, county and municipal authorities began their probe of Chicago's weirdest tragedy when a giant dirigible balloon – the first army style blimp to visit the city – hurtled through the skylight of the Illinois Trust and Savings bank, killing eleven persons, injuring twenty-eight and turning the counting room of the bank into a charnel house of horror.

The first official investigation will come when Coroner HOFFMAN summons a jury for the inquest over the bodies of the dead. State Attorney HOYNE also is conducting a probe and has declared that prosecution will follow if any evidence of negligence is discovered.

Federal authorities have not determined their course of procedure, but will go into every phase of the subject.

To Pass Aerial Laws.
One almost certain result of the disaster is that the city council will draft and pass ordinances regulating future traffic over the city by aircraft of all descriptions.

The accident is the first of its kind that ever has occurred over a great city. Dirigibles have crashed to earth over battlefields or above aviation camps, but never before has a huge balloon crashed down in the crowded heart of a metropolis. For this reason it is not unlikely that legislation which the city council may enact will be in the nature of pioneer rules for air traffic that may form the basis for future aerial lawmaking.

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