Pilot Dies as Airship Bursts Into Flames (Goodyear Blimp)

[KeepItReal]

An airship burst into flames and fell out of the sky in Germany on Sunday evening, killing the pilot, but the three passengers managed to leap to safety and were unhurt, police said.

The blimp, part of an advertising campaign for the Goodyear tire company, was about to land at an airfield in Reichelsheim in western Germany when fire broke out in both engines, according to media reports.

Bild newspaper reported that the pilot, an Australian, called out to the passengers: "We're having a crash!" and told them to jump out of the cabin, which was hovering just 2 meters (6.6 feet) above the ground at the time. As soon as they had hurled themselves to safety, the airship soared rapidly to a height of around 50 meters, possibly due to the sudden loss of weight in the cabin, making it impossible for the pilot to escape, eyewitnesses said.

The blimp then became engulfed in flames and fell back to the ground in a ball of fire. The passengers were a press photographer and a TV crew who had been on a two-and-a-half-hour round trip to get aerial shots of a public festival.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,768163,00.html


The blimp on Sunday shortly before the fatal crash.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

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[mysuzuki2]

2. I was planning on buying my own blimp

when I won the lottery. Perhaps I should rethink my plans.

[TwilightGardener]

3. "Safety together". Isn't it ironic? Dont'cha think?

[Canuckistanian]

7. And the blimp's name was "Spirit of Safety II"

I think they have 3 other ones.

[JPZenger]

4. Sounds like the pilot was a hero, who gave his life to save the passengers

[KeepItReal]

5. Yes, definitely.

Pretty tragic.

[Deep13]

6. Well, you don't see that everyday.

I guess the actual blimp material must be flammable.

[petronius]

8. Very sad - and a brave pilot. I wonder if it was one of their new airships; isn't GY

in the middle of replacing the blimp fleet?

The pictures at the link are pretty horrifying...

[Liberal In Texas]

13. It was not one of the new Zepplin NTs.

"The company has recently announced that it will replace its existing three blimps with Zeppelin NT semi-rigid craft, which have a partial internal skeleton of GRP and aramid cables allowing the engines to be situated away from the gondola. This offers handling benefits as well as improved safety in a situation like that which occurred in Germany yesterday."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,768163,00.html

The pilot appears to have been a hero, but with the smell of fuel aboard during the flight one would think that he should have not taken off or put it on the ground as soon as possible.

[progressoid]

9. photo of it on fire...

[dana_b]

17. horriffic

poor man.

[liberal N proud]

10. Blimp - Gemany... Hmmm!

:think:

[Scuba]

11. Nice view from up there, but I prefer to take my risks underwater...

http://imgur.com/H4HWp>

I would be way too scared to climb down, but this doesn't frighten me...

<img src="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" />

[petronius]

14. You and me both - that balloon pic gives me the serious willies

The sharks? I'm just jealous of the photographer...

[tuckessee]

12. Quick thinking by that pilot saved the three passengers.

If he bites his lip for a second and dosen't tell them to bail out at that instant then they would be dead too.

[JohnnyRingo]

15. I wonder...

If the fire began consuming the gas bag and created a leak, the airship may have "plunged" from a height of six feet. The fire from the ruptured fuel cells might have caused some injuries (or worse), but I doubt impact would have been a problem.

No matter the captains orders, passengers may have been about to bail when they spotted the flames (I would have) and would have caused the ship to gain negative buoyancy anyway.

I'm not as courageous. If I were the captain, I probably would have led the way.

[KeepItReal]

16. MSNBC report on this left out Goodyear name altogether

And they showed a distant video where you can't see much of anything.

[Taverner]

18. Did they paint their blimp with thermite again?