Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Beverly Municipal Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Manchester, Massachusetts 01944
Tuesady, September 26, 2006 12:15 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
Prior to departure, the operator's maintenance personnel performed engine starts, runups, and pressure checks. While a mechanic was performing the engine runups, a gust of wind kited the blimp and then forced it down, fully collapsing the wheel strut which was mounted to a truss assembly in the bottom of the control car in close proximity to the rudder control system's idler shaft assembly drive sprockets. The pilot of the blimp who witnessed the incident, discussed the incident with a mechanic, then entered the control car and moved the rudder pedals and control wheel each way to insure that there were no flight control restrictions; however, prior to departure, the pilot did not perform a pre-unmasting flight control check with the aid of the crew chief, which was required by the aircraft flight manual. After applying power and lifting off, the nose of the blimp began to move left. The pilot could not arrest the turn with the application of right rudder. There was no response or feedback from the rudder and the blimp began to drift to the east. The pilot tried to steer using differential power but, when he added power on either engine, it only increased the rate of turn to the left. As the blimp continued to drift eastward while simultaneously turning left, the blimp approached a metropolitan area and the Atlantic Ocean. The pilot then descended so that if the blimp drifted towards an "open" area, a rapid descent could be initiated to the ground. The descent was then continued by venting helium from the blimp's envelope. As the blimp continued to descend the pilot realized that there were no open areas in which to land, and as the blimp was headed into the wind, he brought both engines to idle and held both helium valves full open until the blimp settled into trees. Post incident examination of the blimps rudder control system revealed that the pedal cable/chain assembly had slipped off of the idler shaft assembly outboard drive sprocket. Further examination revealed that the sprocket was partially surrounded by two metallic tabs, one located above the sprocket, and one located below the sprocket, which acted as a chain keeper guard; however, the front and left side of the sprocket was unguarded.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
A malfunction of the rudder control system, and the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection. Contributing to the incident was the inadequate design of the chain keeper guards.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 9/26/2006 |
| Event Day of the Week | Tuesday |
| Time of Event | 1215 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | Manchester |
| Event State | MASSACHUSETTS |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 01944 |
| Event Date Year | 2006 |
| Event Date Month | 9 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 423337N |
| Event Location Longitude | 0705438W |
| Event Location Airport | Beverly Municipal Airport |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | BVY |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 5.98 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 107 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1153 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 270 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | BVY |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 107 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 5 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 18 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 8 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 280 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 11 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.89 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 1 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 22931 |
| NTSB Notification Source | NTSB Com Center |
| NTSB Notification Date | Sep 26 2006 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 30 2008 4:08PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\johb |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Boston, MA |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N614LG |
| NTSB Number | NYC06IA229 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Minor |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | American Blimp Corp. |
| Aircraft Model | A-60+ |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 014 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 4394 |
| Aircraft Category | Blimp |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 5 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | 100 Hour |
| Date of Last Inspection | Sep 1 2006 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | 9823.7 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | THE LIGHTSHIP GROUP |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Orlando |
| Aircraft Owner State | FL |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 32819 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | VL9A |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Other Work Use |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | BVY |
| Departure City | Beverly |
| Departure State | MA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1215 |
| Departure Time Zone | EDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | BVY |
| Destination City | -- |
| Destination State | -- |
| Destination Country | -- |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Climb |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 30 2007 3:35PM |
| User who most recently changed record | MUZD |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | NA |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |