Friday, October 29, 1999
2 hurt as Goodyear blimp crashes outside Akron
The Associated Press
SUFFIELD, Ohio — A Goodyear blimp crashed into a wooded area Thursday night near the company's air dock, injuring two people.
Gerald Hissem, pilot of the Spirit of Akron, and Robert Peacock, a technician for the blimp's night sign, suffered minor cuts but no serious injuries, Goodyear spokesman Keith Price said.
They were the only people aboard, he said. No one on the ground was hurt.
It was unclear why the blimp went down, but the airship started to deflate and descend slowly about 6 p.m., Mr. Price said. The deflating envelope indicates the ship was venting helium, the nonflammable but lighter-than-air gas that keeps the blimp aloft.
The crew was making a routine night sign flight, in which the ship runs a light show and advertisements on each side of the blimp, when the accident occurred.
Mr. Price said the company was sending its own team to investigate the accident. Goodyear officials had not yet spoken with the crew, Mr. Price said.
Television shots from a helicopter showed the blimp nose down in a clump of trees with the front part of the balloon section apparently collapsed. The fins at the rear of the blimp could be seen sticking up from the trees.
The Spirit of Akron is one of seven blimps on four continents promoting Goodyear as the world's No. 1 tire maker.
The airship is based close to the crash site about 10 miles southeast of Akron in Suffield Township in Portage County.
For decades, Goodyear blimps have been fixtures at major sporting events, such as the Super Bowl, and they are among the world's most recognized corporate symbols. The Spirit of Akron provided shots of Monday night's National Football League game at Pittsburgh.
Akron-based Goodyear first began using blimps to advertise its products in the late 1920s and one flew at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1933.
In those days, Goodyear also built airships for the U.S. military but now it refurbishes a few of its airships and buys the others. The blimps in service are worth more than $5 million each, the company says.
No one has ever been seriously injured flying in one of Goodyear's commercial blimps, Mr. Price said.
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