A tragic insident occured today at a nearby airfield of mine in Reichelsheim EDFB near Frankfurt/germany.

The Goodyear Blimp G-TLEL, that was supposed to be stationed in Reichelsheim threwout this month for sightseeing trips and an information campaign together with the AvD (automobile club) for roadkills and safer driving, crashed this evening and burst into flames. Three passengers on board, all of them reporters, were able to save themselves by jumping out of the blimp 2m/6,5ft off the ground. The pilot then tried to land the blimp when it started to burn. Unfotuately he did not make it out anymore. The blimp of the type A60+ is built by American Blimp Corporation and came over to germany for the Goodyear Tour 2011.

This just came on in the radio and is a very sad story to me. I saw this blimp fly above our heliport threwout the entire week and even saw its last flight above the skyline of Frankfurt today. I couldn't believe what I heard on the radio 40mins afterwards. But now the other press seems to take up on the story. My thoughts go out to the pilot Mike, his relatives and friends.

I wonder what made this accident happen. Nowdays blimps are'nt filled with inflamable gas anymore so the only thing that might start a fire are its engines or its avionics. The Pilot, an australian, was one of the most experienced pilots around. This puzzles me...

The investigations of the BFU, the german air accident investigation board, have just begun and the true cause to this horrible accident is not yet known.

As eye whitnesses report the blimp had a rough landing which made its main landing gear collapse. It is told that the pilot said oh we had an accident, we just crashed. Only seconds after or before this incident the smell of fuel was present inside the cabin. Apparently one of the engines might have gotton on fire as the heat was felt inside the cabin. In an herous move Mike opended the door and told the passangers to bail out - well aware of the fact that this loss of weight would catapult the blimp back up into the air. As he was one of the most experienced blimp captains of the world he knew what would happen. The blimp quickly gained altitude again untill it suddenly burst into flames and slowly fell back to earth from about 40m/131ft.

I truly hope it helps his family to know that he saved the lives of his passenger. RIP Mike

Sorry to be a bit late in catching up with this forum.. The passengers were so lucky to have survived thanks to the pilot who died a hero saving them. May he rest in peace.