Airship crash in Germany
On June 12, 2011, an American Blimp A-60+, operated by Lightship Europe, caught fire during landing at Reichelsheim, after the main gear broke off it made the airship hit the ground, at the impact started a fuel leak, that eventually lead to a fire. The flight was an advertisement flight with passengers, of the 4 on board the pilot died.
Background.
Aircraft.
The airship involved was an American Blimp A-60+ with the Goodyear logo written on it. The registration of the aircraft was G-TLEL, and although operating in Germany, the aircraft had a United Kingodm registration. It was manufactured in 1991 and powered by two Limbach L2000 EC1 engines.
Passengers and crew.
The pilot was 52 years old Australian Micheal Nerandzic, he had 12,330 flight hours on blimps. The passengers were all reporters. The blimp was on an advertisement flight with passengers to promote a festival in the city of Oberursel.
Accident.
At 8:30 am local time the airship began preparation for the flight, with the gas being pumped inside it. At 9:30 am the load sheet was redacted, and the aircraft had a weight of nearly 1,400 kg. At 6:08 pm the airship took off for the eight flight of the day, on board that flight were pilot Nerandzic (who was the second pilot to pilot the airship that day) and the three passengers. The flight plan was to take fly over Bad Homburg, to allow the journalists to take photos of the preparation for a concert. After two hours of flight the pilot contacted the Reichelsheim airfield to report his position in preparation for landing; at that time he was 5 nautical miles south-west of the airfield. During the approach the passengers observed that the aircraft was descending quickly, and at 8:15 pm the airship impacted the ground about 470 m away from the landing spot. After the impact the occupants started to smell fuel on board and heat was perceived inside the gondola, which eventually lead to a fire, started to develope in the aft part of the cabin. The ground crew reported smoke coming from the cabin, and soon after the three passengers disembarked and the airship started to climb again. The aircraft reached 100 m of height, and the fire spread throughout the rest of the cabin and the envelope. At 8:20 pm the airship crashed about 400 m away from the touchdown point. The final report concluded that the landing gear moved so far back that the steel cable ruptured. As a result, the airship slid on the ground for a few meters and, during that movement, the broken gear ruptured a valve causing the fuel leak. The final report concluded that the crash was due to pilot error, and that the wind conditions at the landing airport and the erroneus loading of the airship were contributing factors.
Aftermath.
The day after the crash Lightship Europe issued a statement sending the condolences to the family of the dead pilot. The company also suspended the operations with their second airship until further notice. In 2014 it was assigned a posthumous Star of Courage by Australia to the deceased pilot for saving the passengers. The final report on the accident was published by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation.
References.
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