Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Decent

About 10:50 the L8 is sighted along the coast highway. An off duty seaman driving along the highway, heading for a day at the beach, takes a picture of the L-8. The blimp is partially deflated and the seaman can tell the L-8 is behaving strangely. He and his photogragh would end up in the inquest later on.

The lettering along the center of the ballonnet, " N A V Y", starts to form a V-shape, merging the A V...

The L-8 comes in just above the sand. Two men swimming in the water attempt to control the blimp, grabbing at it's guide ropes. The blimp, too massive and being driven by the wind, rolls along the beach, unstoppable. After making it over the dunes and onto the golf course, still venting drags along the grass. The bomb on the right side of the gondola gets dislodged and drops onto the ground.

At this point, the Navy receives an anonymous call saying that the blimp has crashed onto the golf course but that they have the crew.

As trucks are dispatched from Moffet Field to the golf course for a recovery, a second anonymous call comes in saying that the airman are not aboard!
This is to become one of the oddest bits of the mystery to solve.

Why would anyone call the air field and say they have the crew and then contradict themselves. I spent a long time wondering who would have been at the crash site and what motive they might have for saying the pilots were not there after-all....
The answer to this was uncovered at the library at the Pensacola Naval Air Station where the restored L-8 gondola now resides.

If you have a chance to go to Pensacola, the air museum is worth the trip alone! For L-8 officinadoes it's the gold ring. See http://NavalAviationMuseum.org.  I loved the museum, but being able to touch the L-8 was the thrill of a lifetime. I only knew 90% of the story at that point a couple of years ago. I've spent the intervening years getting together bits of the story that are the first and second acts in this play..... San Francisco was the last act. I've spent several years piecing this together, traveled a lot of miles around the country, and at the end of the trip found that the story took me home again....

But back to the story in 1942....

Having been lightened by 350 lbs, a gust of wind lifts the partially deflated blimp into the air once more and on it's way to Daly City for the final bits of this chapter of the story...


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