Oh, the humanity (??)

The ~100-foot long Hood Blimp, famed for its appearance over New England sports events, crashed into the woods in the vicinity of Manchester-By-The-Sea in Massachusetts' North Shore today. The blimp, which usually hovers over games at Boston's Fenway Park, experienced mechanical failures with its rudder this morning. The pilot attempted a landing on nearby Singing Beach (a small strip of sand that serves as my beach of choice in MA) but ended up stranded in trees nearby. The crash was uneventful, as the craft apparently made a smooth landing into the trees, where it proceeded to deflate as the pilot communicated with rescue crew for over 2 hours about the nature of the crash before he was rescued.

The Sox game continued without the blimp hovering overhead this evening, as we are told (and I must say I do not hear its characteristic buzzing hum).

If I were given a choice of what aircraft to experience a crash, it would be a blimp. No catastrophic incineration...given that the blimp is inflated with helium. This incident would have had a much more tragic end had it occurred 80 years ago, when blimps at the time were filled with hydrogen, a highly inflammable gas. Remember the Hindenberg...