On this date in 1942, a U.S. Navy L-class dirigible landed on a street in Daly City, California, with no sign of its crew. The airship in question was a former Goodyear blimp, designated L-8 when it was pressed into military service on 5 Mar 1942 and assigned to Airship Squadron LZ-32. The blimp’s commander was 27-year-old Lt. Ernest DeWitt Cody. (On 11 Apr 1942, he and the L-8 had ferried a 300-lb load of spare aircraft parts out to the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). The freight was lowered by line to the deck of Hornet while the blimp hovered over the carrier. The parts were for the sixteen North American B-25B Mitchell medium bombers under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle of the U.S. Army Air Forces, which Hornet would launch toward Japan one week later.) With Lt. Cody was 34-year-old Ens. Charles Ellis Adams. L-8 departed Naval Air Station Moffett Field on San Francisco Bay at 6:03 that morning, passing over the Golden Gate Bridge and making for the Farallon Islands, 30 miles out to sea. From there, it was to continue north to Point Reyes, then return south along the coastline. At 7:42 AM, Lt. Cody radioed that he was four miles east of the Farallones. Four minutes later, he called again and reported an oil slick on the water. It was the last communication with the blimp’s crew. Two fishing boats later reported seeing the blimp circle the oil slick to investigate, and then sail off. At 11:15 AM, people on the beach south of San Francisco saw the L-8 soar in from the sea. A significant amount of helium had been vented and the gas bag was sagging amidships. The blimp dragged its wheel along the beach, then hit a sand dune. It bounced up and into a small canyon; striking the side of the canyon bent the propeller of the starboard engine and knocked loose one of the two depth charges it carried. The loss of weight allowed it to rise higher in the air. It dragged across the roof of a house in the 400 block of Bellevue Ave. in Daly City, coming to rest in the street. Onlookers arrived within seconds of the touch-down. Lt. Cody’s cap rested on the instrument panel, and a locked briefcase containing codes was still in its place, as was the machine gun. The door was latched open, a highly unusual in-flight position, while the safety bar used to block the doorway was no longer in place. A microphone hooked to an outside loudspeaker dangled from the gondola. Two of the three life jackets on board were missing; regulations required that they be put on before take-off. The inflatable life-raft and parachutes were stowed in place. One year later, the missing crewmen were officially declared dead. The blimp itself was repaired and after the war returned to Goodyear, who continued to fly it until 1982.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 00:47:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015