Pilot killed helping passengers to make escape as Goodyear Blimp plunges to ground in flames!

Pilot killed helping passengers to make escape as Goodyear Blimp plunges to ground in flames!

www.dailymail.co.uk

A Goodyear blimp burst into flames and plunged to earth in a weekend crash in Germany.

The pilot was killed but three passengers managed to jump to safety when the airship caught fire as it was coming in to land at the Reichelsheim aerodrome near Friedberg.

When the airship was just six metres from the floor, the pilot told his passengers, all journalists, to jump to the ground while he tried to land safely.
Once the three had leapt clear of the blimp he took it back up before being it became overwhelmed by flames and crashed to the earth, in a chilling echo of the Hindenburg disaster.

(visit the link for the full news article)

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/15ad4e2b40d7.jpg[/atsimg]

You have to see the rest of the pics to get the whole story. Amazing that people live through these evetns.

Great loss of the pilot but he died doing his duty. Commendable.

Any ATSers over there, near this place.

I didn't know the Goodyear Blimps went overseas. I will have to check on that. They are always flying around where I live-in the summer months.

Too bad. I hope nothing criminal is involved.

www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Hey Anon,

Such a tragic story. Reminds me very eerily of the Hindenburg. Have they
discovered the cause?

Pax

Aw, bless the pilot. He was a hero.

The title confused me at first. I thought it was stating the pilot killed passengers who had been trying to help so he could make his escape. lol

reply to post by anon72


Truly a hero who thought of others before himself. I wish there were more like him. A man to emulate to be sure.

As the Captain of the ship, it was his duty to help the passengers before himself.

And he did that with bravery ending in a tragic result for him.

A true hero in the very definition of the word.

RIP


The Hindenburg:

Here is the link to the Blid. They had a reporter there. Additional pics (clearer)

www.bild.de...

All in German, sorry.

Standard operating procedure by a brave man,USAF pilots often stay with a crashing plane over populated areas in order to take every possible action to protect innocent life.All of us should behave like this as well.

the pilot deserves a medal.
such a sad story indeed

Let's name the hero: The blimp pilot who died was named Mike Nerandzic.
He was a 42 year-old Austrian. RIP Mike.

The three journalists who escaped were a photographer from a newspaper and two from television.

Originally posted by AshleyD
The title confused me at first. I thought it was stating the pilot killed passengers who had been trying to help so he could make his escape. lol

edit on 6/13/2011 by AshleyD because: (no reason given)

Haha I read it the same way at first... I was like "WTF?!?!"

Germany seems to be cursed when it comes to blimps. That guy was definitely one cool cat, not many people like him around these days.

it became overwhelmed by flames and crashed to the earth, in a chilling echo of the Hindenburg disaster. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

The Daily mail does it again, they nearly made it this time, they very nearly wrote a good article on a real story, but no they had to put something like that in, shame - it's got about as much to do with the Hindenburg as a sinking fishing trawler has to the Titanic.

Kudos on the pilot tho, well done that man, professional gentleman right up to the point the big white gates to the play boy cloud open up.

As with the case of the French concorde crash, most often in these modern instances,. the pilot can do very little about where the plane goes after its problem develops. It actually is very rare that a pilot rides his plane down to save the lives of those on the ground these days. The ejection seat made it easy to get out.

In this case, once the passengers jumped out, the boeyance of the craft would have instantly increased and the rose, trapping the pilot inside. That said, we do know that he would have been the last off the ship and didn't try to beat the passengers to the door. That alone makes him a hero.

Ah no...its SOP ,it is USAF doctrine .I live in Colorado Springs next to the Air Force Academy,my father was an LT Col Command pilot from WWII they will protect innocent civilian lives with their own,fact,that is all.
If they are over a war zone the opposite is usually true but that is war.

Too bad this thread got moved to back here.

Got lost in the shuffle.

This is a story that should be told/shown to everyone for many of teaching reasons.

Originally posted by 7thcavtrooper
Ah no...its SOP ,it is USAF doctrine .I live in Colorado Springs next to the Air Force Academy,my father was an LT Col Command pilot from WWII they will protect innocent civilian lives with their own,fact,that is all.
If they are over a war zone the opposite is usually true but that is war.

I suggest you collect the data on militry craft that have failed in flight and whether the pilot ejected or guided the plane down to the best of his abilities. The truth is, that once the equipment fails, these jets are flying rocks with little or no control. You punch out. You don't know where the craft will plow. Pilots are captains of their ships, but with no passengers, they pull the handle within seconds of a failure. You watch enough air show crashes, you will find that to be universially true. Cowards? No, .

Not being a pilot I can only state what fighter pilots told me.