Blimp pilot being called a hero after deadly explosion
June 14, 2011, 04:04 pm
In a rare accident this week, a blimp in Germany caught fire and crashed. The pilot was attempting to land the Zeppelin aircraft after journalists onboard smelled fuel and heard a loud noise from an engine, according to the Australian Daily Telegraph.
The Aussie pilot, Mike Nerandzic, is being called a hero by those familiar with the crash details. Realizing the blimp was about to go up in flames, Nerandzic brought the aircraft as low as he could, approximately six feet above ground, and yelled for them to jump out.
As soon as the three passengers fled the doomed blimp, the vessel shot 165 feet in the air and exploded. The wreckage fell to the ground where Nerandzic was found still at the controls, it was unclear at the time of the report if he had pilots life insurance, according to CNN.
"When they told me what he had done for the passengers, it didn't surprise me one little bit," Lyndy Nerandzic, the pilot's wife, told Australia's Illawarra Mercury Newspaper. "He was a character. He was larger than life. He was so, so generous."
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