Frequent earthquakes had begun to cause panic among the masses. In scientific terms, this phenomenon was explained as: half the block faults beneath the earth's crust were moving frequently, and the entire Pacific plate was showing signs of collapse.... In San Francisco, the area where San Andreas Fault activities were most likely to occur, there had been 16 earthquakes over 5.0 in magnitude, with 136 reported deaths.
Considering these facts, even if the authorities were still trying their hardest to suppress the news, the airship tickets sold by the base were lapped up faster every day.
The base had already sold more than 50,000 tickets up to now. The first test flight of a complete airship formation had been performed and thoroughly scrutinised, with the intention of giving the ticket purchasers some assurances. They had invited thousands of future passengers to observe the test flight.
