The R101 came down on a hillside near Beauvais in the early hours, on the first leg of a flight to Karachi, and of the fifty-four people aboard, forty-eight died. Among them Lord Thomson, the Air Minister, who had pressed for the ship to be ready; Sir Sefton Brancker; Flight Lieutenant Carmichael Irwin, who was flying her; Major Scott; Squadron Leader Johnston, the navigator. Most of the crew were riggers, engineers and wireless men from Cardington.
The gasbags had been chafing against the girders inside the hull, and the fix was padding, thousands of pads, with the wiring let out to gain lift. The certificate of airworthiness was issued days before departure, without the full trials. Britain's airship programme did not continue past 1930; R100 was broken up the following year.
Forty-eight of them lie in one grave at Cardington, a few miles from the shed they worked in, and the names are still read there. Most of those riggers and engine men lived within walking distance of the mast.