Unofficial answers for the ghost blimp’s missing crew range from an enemy attack to alien abductions.
Wikimedia CommonsA World War II Navy Blimp .
One of the many dilemmas faced by the Navy following the fire on Pearl Harbor was a shortage of ship available to police the West Coast . At a prison term when the risk from Japanese submarine attack was very real , the military was force to bring back some rather out-of-date technology to police the coast : blimps .
Interestingly , one of these massive dirigibles would be at the shopping centre of one of the more freakish mysteries to come forth from the warfare .
Wikimedia CommonsA World War II Navy Blimp.
On August 16 , 1943 , at around 6 ante meridiem , Lieutenant Ernest Cody and Ensign Charles Adams determine off in an L-8 Colonel Blimp on a routine patrol . Both Cody and Adams were experienced veterans , with the latter even beingdecorated by the German governmentfor rescue passengers from the infamousHindenburg tragedy .
The L-8 Colonel Blimp itself had made over 1,000 trip through the sky without any serious damage and had been inspected and approved to vanish only four 24-hour interval before Adams and Cody ’s mission .
FlickrThe 1937 Hindenburg disaster , which resulted in 36 fatality .
FlickrThe 1937 Hindenburg disaster, which resulted in 36 fatalities.
At 7:42 a.m. Cody radioed in to inform HQ that they were investigating “ a suspect crude slick , ” which could be the sign of sub mill around below the ocean ’s surface . There would be no further communications from the aircraft .
After circling the target area for more than an hr , the blimp tardily started making its way back towards San Francisco ; normal conduct for an anti - undersea craftsmanship on patrol . Nothing out of the ordinary was suspected until the sausage balloon drifted into the suburbs . By this fourth dimension , yard of the great unwashed had forgather to watch the aircraft ’s progress , which was only staunch when it crashed into a utility pole .
Luckily , no one was pain in the crash , and the blimp managed to avoid starting a major fire when it collide with the electric wire . police officer and fire fighter rushed to the scene , in Hope of aid the crew , but when they had contract through the wreckage , the rescuers found their efforts had been in vain : Cody and Adams were nowhere to be see .
National ArchivesCrowds gather around the crash site in Daly City near San Francisco.
National ArchivesCrowds gather around the crash site in Daly City near San Francisco .
The craft ’s gondola was empty , but perfectly entire . In fact , there was nothing wrong with the aircraft at all , other than the fact that the gondola door ( which could only be opened from within ) was latch open .
Further inspection of the aircraft yielded no clue as to what had pass to its pilots . There was no sign of damage , the radio was working , and there were four hr of gas depart in the fuel tank .
National ArchivesThe sagging L-8 drifts over Daly City.
The pilots on every surveillance flying were given a weighted briefcase filled with classified materials that could be toss overboard in case the craft was compromise . The L-8 ’s briefcase was found behind the pilot ’s buttocks , implying that either Cody and Adams had not think whatever had happened was serious enough to warrant getting disembarrass of the papers , or something had find too quickly for the gang to react and dump the briefcase .
So what had happened to the two men on board ? No prescribed reply has ever been render , although Cody and Adams were both declared dead after having been missing a year . Unofficial answer vagabond from an enemy attack or a personal combat that turned baneful , to alien abduction or a secret weapons test that go away wonky .
National ArchivesThe sagging L-8 movement over Daly City .
An account that falls somewhere between aliens and abductions is that one of the man devolve out of the blimp while it was investigating the oil slickness and the other had leaped out in an attempted rescue , and himself drowned in the process . If the rescuer had hoped to quickly preserve his comrade , he would n’t have trouble oneself to tuner in or flip the secret paper overboard .
The only hole in this theory is that the L-8 had an audience while it was circling the shady surface area . The crews of both theDaisy Gray , a sportfishing trawler , and theAlbert Gallatin , a freight ship , had observed the blimp as it flew low to investigate the rock oil slick and not a single sailor had noticed anything amiss .
Whether it was aliens , Axis spy , or a bare accident , Cody and Adams were never hear from again . The ghost blimp , however , became one of the Goodyear blimps andtouredaround the land during sporting events until 1982 .
