Crash site of U.S. Navy Blimp L-8 ("The Ghost Blimp") (Daly City, California)

USA / California / Daly City / Daly City, California
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On August 16, 1942, U.S. Navy Blimp L-8, part of Blimp Squadron 32 (ZP-32), based out of Moffett Field, crashed in the 400 block of Bellevue Avenue.

At 6:03 A.M., naval blimp L-8 took off from Treasure Island, located in the center of San Francisco Bay, with its crew of two.
An hour and a half into the patrol, at 7:42 A.M., the pilot radioed to base that he had located a possible oil slick in the water, and was going to further investigate. This was the last transmission received from the crew of the L-8.

At 11:15 A.M., people on the beach near the Olympic Club's Lakeside golf course saw the L-8 drift in overhead.
One of the two depth charges on board the airship broke free from it's rack, and fell to the ground at the Olympic Club's golf course.
The shore patrol of San Francisco called the Navy at Moffett Field, and informed them that a blimp had accidentally dropped a depth charge on dry land.

A seaman driving from San Mateo to San Francisco saw the blimp fall from the skies, bent in the middle in a 'V' shape.

The plunge scraped the roofs of homes and struck telephone lines, spraying sparks.
L-8 came to rest in the center of the 400 block of Bellevue Avenue.

It was found unmanned.

Somebody call Leonard Nimoy for me. ~phiz 9/13/2007

www.sfmuseum.org/hist8/blimp.html
www.goodyearblimp.com/faqs/faqs_history.html
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   37°42'20"N   122°26'56"W

Comments

  • I Was based in Watsonville Ca at the Aux. Navy Blimp base When Love 8 went down in Daly City.I believe it remains one of the big mysteries of WW2. Both pilots were missing and to my knowledge there was never any information about them.At least the Navy never divulged any. Th L8 was taken to Moffett Field and completely repaired.There was no fire so most of the damage was by the Daly city fire Dept thinking it was going to blowup, but it had helium instead of hydrogen. When the L8 was ready to fly again as part of a 3 man crew from Watsonville we went to Moffett Field to fly the ship down the coast to Watsonville. We had a nice day and were tooling along near the old abandon cement ship when the elevator control unit chain lost its master link and disappeared into the bilges.We quickly took up the deck and retrieved the chain(Bycycle type)and reinstalled it back into opreation.The pilot declared an emergency and headed back to Moffett,where we landed safely. I have often tried to figure out what happened that day.There was a small life raft and also life vests for everyone.One or the other was missing The door was very flimsy and since the blimp just moved along very slowly in some sort of a struggle you could fall out and be gone.There was no protective bar across the door. Daly City is celebrating 100yrs old and in the news tonite March 22, 2011 there was a splash about Daly City and the crash of the L8 was mentioned,and to the computer I came. At the time I was a 23yr old sailor AMM3/c and now I am 92yrs old and live in 1541 Fordham Way, Mountain View,Ca 94040
  • The life vests were missing. The gondola was rebuilt by Goodyear in 1968 and used for the Goodyear blimp "America" until 1982. The gondola was donated to the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, FL and restored to its original WWI-era appearance.
This article was last modified 6 years ago