LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Goodyear blimp crashed Wednesday night while trying to land at its base airport south of Los Angeles, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman said.

The blimp pilot and a cameraman were the only occupants on the aircraft when it drifted into a nearby plant nursery and landed nose-first shortly before 10 p.m. (1 a.m. ET) in Carson, about 17 miles south of Los Angeles.

Video of the scene showed the blimp's nose firmly implanted into the ground, with a semi truck underneath. The rest of the aircraft was tilted at about a 45-degree angle into the air. The cabin of the blimp was not damaged, and most of the inflated part was largely intact.

The cameraman was transported to a nearby hospital complaining of minor knee pain, authorities said.

Goodyear has a fleet of three helium-filled blimps based in California, Florida and Ohio.

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/US/West/12/04/blimp.crash/story.goodyear.crash.jpg

Its the same old story. Boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back then boy loses girl in a tragic blimp accident over the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.

Goodyear?

No, the worst.

I used to drive by that blimp everyday on my way to work when I lived in Los Angeles.

I don't know why but I am fascinated by blimps. I've always wanted to ride in one. Anyone know anybody who can make that happen for me?

Blimps scare me so bad. I couldn't imagine having to ride in one. They look like they could explode in to a giant fireball at any moment.

I remember as a kid being fascinated with the Goodyear blimp. One would always show up in August for the Seafair event in Seattle, and I would hear that sucker coming overhead at night, run out into the yard, and watch the lights on its readerboard.

Kind of a fun childhood memory.

When I lived in Florida it would be a common occurance for it to swoop overhead VERY low. The thing looked like it took up the whole sky - it seemed massively big. I would just stop and stare.

Kind of a fun adult memory.

Originally posted by Bad-example
Its the same old story. Boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back then boy loses girl in a tragic blimp accident over the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.

Goodyear?

No, the worst.

Damn it! You stole my reference! :D

Do any of you know ... how a man can hurt inside?!

Two comments.

First, great thread title.

Second,

Originally posted by Dutch
I used to drive by that blimp everyday on my way to work when I lived in Los Angeles.

I had to read this three times to convince myself that Dutch was not claiming to be a recovering blimp pilot.

I used to talk to that blimp when I was in air traffic in california. In fact, one of the best compliments I've ever gotten was by the pilot of that airship ( not sure if it's this guy or not though ).

What was more cool though was the Pink Floyd blimp. The goodyear policy was to never allow their airships to do tower flybys but the Pink Floyd guys could and did do a couple for us.

The best one I remember was at sunset because our tower faced the west and the oranges and reds blanketing the festive colors made the whole thing amazing to look at.

Some dangerous shrubs out in CA. They can apparently bring down a blimp. WMD?

Originally posted by damnMikeBrown
Some dangerous shrubs out in CA. They can apparently bring down a blimp. WMD?

Where'd you see that the shrubs brought it down?? It said that it landed in a nursey but not exactly why it had to.

Originally posted by KWhit
I don't know why but I am fascinated by blimps. I've always wanted to ride in one. Anyone know anybody who can make that happen for me?

When I was in fourth or fifth grade, we went to the Goodyear base in north houston and see the blimp. Didn't get to ride in it, tho.

You know, our school had funky field trips. Another year, either fourth of fifth, I'm thinking, we went to the sugar factory in Sugarland, Texas. Whose bright idea was it to let a bunch of screaming kids into a sugar factory. Then again, to this day, I look at sugar packets most everywhere I go to see if they're made by Imperial.

SI