Fair use:

Goodyear blimp crashes; two receive minor cuts

Friday, October 29, 1999

By KAREN FARKAS, ALAN ACHKAR and JENNIFER SCOTT CIMPERMAN PLAIN DEALER REPORTERS

SUFFIELD TOWNSHIP - The Goodyear blimp Spirit of Akron lost its spirit for flight last night, and all its air.

It ended the evening as a deflated clump of rubber-coated polyester, stuck in a patch of trees, with its tail fins blowing gently in the wind.

"It's very tough to see it," said a dejected Goodyear spokesman, Mickey Wittman. "It's a sad sight when you have a deflated" blimp.

The Spirit of Akron made a slow, gentle crash-landing about 6:20 p.m. because of computer problems, according to the State Highway Patrol. Its pilot, Gerald Hissem, 29, of Mogadore, and a video technician, Robert Peacock, 34, of Akron, suffered only minor cuts.

The two men had just launched from Goodyear's blimp hangar in Suffield Township for a 90-minute flight to broadcast a series of community messages in the area. Instead, the Spirit of Akron took them on a slow descent into woods at Ohio 224 and Ohio 43.

"It was flying really low. And then it started doing what a fish does, kind of floundering on its right side. And then it nose-dived into the trees," said Cindy Slater, who lives about 500 feet from the crash site.

)1999 THE PLAIN DEALER

http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/c29blim.ssf

-- Scarecrow (Somewhere@over.rainbow), October 29, 1999

Answers

Oh, the humanity!

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), October 29, 1999.

heh

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 29, 1999.

I suppose that blimp was not 100% perfectly functional, like every other blimp in the world.

Because after all we all know that in order for something to work properly it has to be 100% compliant on all counts.

-- (_@_._), October 29, 1999.

_@_ must be right. We know for a fact -- Koskinen said so -- that planes will not fall from the sky. Furthermore: Blimps to not fall from the sky: they deflate. FURTHERMORE, this blimp did not fall from the sky, but from the story gradually sank, then "floundered", then "nose-dived" into the trees. FURTHERMORE, it is of no significance whatever that this is the firsts blimp-crash you've heard of in 20 years, and of less significance that the computers caused it 60 days from Y2K, when they malfunctioned. It also is pointless -- boneheaded nonsense -- to suggest that's it's other than flukey coincidence, in fact it's evil to let the thought once enter your head, that it's at all related to the crash of Payne Stewart's plane, since in fact it was successfully flown on auto-pilot BY THE COMPUTERS THEMSELVES for 4 hours before it fell from the sky. However, for those of you who recognize that reality is comprised of the REAL and not just the RATIONAL, lets keep an eye out for planes falling from the sky. Dollars to doughnuts it starts happening everyday, and we'll be seeing a lot less off _@_'s @_ _ cheeks.

-- SH (squirrel@hunter.com), October 29, 1999.

it all depends on what the meaning of "is" is ...... or "compliant" .... or "mission critical" ... or "dow jones 30 industrial averages".

-- mrunderhill (prancing@pony.com), October 29, 1999.

It fell out of the sky due to computer problems, "But it was not an Airplane".

It all depends on what Is is.

-- Helium (Heliumavid@yahoo.com), October 29, 1999.

COMPUTER PROBLEMS could mean a thousand things. Some guy could have spilled a cup of coffee on the avionics board. Some dolt might have sprayed WD-40 into the console, maybe it was just older equipment that had bad wiring after years of being in higher altitudes. Who knows?

To assume that this will be a regular occurance is plain silly, mr. squirrel hunter.

-- (_@_._), October 29, 1999.

Y2K related or not, it's still an example of a "mission critical" computer failure.

Didn't they have a manual work-around? Didn't they have a contingency plan?

What will the end result be? Fix-on-failure, or TEOTW, as a blimp knows it?

Tick... Tock... <:00=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), October 29, 1999.

I don't want to sound like a heartless SOB this soon after the tragedy, but how come Paye Stewart's Lear jet didn't have any contengency plans?

Stuff happens, huh?

I guess you would have us believe that unless something is proven to be infallible it should be categorized as going to the way of TEOTWAWKI.

-- (_@_._), October 29, 1999.

Payne Stewart... sorry for that mistake, I loved the guy.

-- (_@_._), October 29, 1999.

"It's very tough to see it," said a dejected Goodyear spokesman, Mickey Wittman. "It's a sad sight when you have a deflated blimp".

I couldn't agree more - it's humiliating too. You can try the old explanation that your blimp has never unexpectedly deflated before, but of course, everyone knows that's the oldest excuse in the world.

-- deflated (limp@blimp.com), October 29, 1999.