Camera Aboard Tethered Blimp Captured Impact

A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board says air traffic controllers tried to warn a C-182 pilot flying through the Florida Keys last month that he was in restricted airspace before his plane impacted a cable tethering a military blimp.

Shortly after the controller's warning, the aircraft impacted the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) aerostat cable near Cudjoe Key, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The aircraft was inside R-2916.

"According to witnesses, when the airplane impacted the aerostat cable, the left wing went "flying off", and the remainder of the airplane went tumbling into the water near a group of islands about 1/4 mile from where they were located,' said the report.

Pilot Mark Chase, his wife Margaret, and her cousin, Denise Darcey, perished in the accident.

According to the report, the TARS flight director on duty said the aerostat had a cable payout of 8,000 feet, was on a pitch of 9.2 degrees, and had a tension of 2.4K pounds tether force. The flight director's log entry just before the accident indicated no problems.

"At 11:15 pm, the flight director logged "an airplane may have crashed off the north pad into the channel", and at 11:28 pm, the log showed that the flight director initiated cable retraction at a rate of 25 feet per minute. During the course of the retraction it was discovered that the tether had incurred damage at its 4,533-ft cable payout level."

Rescuers -- including the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the Florida Highway Patrol, and US Coast Guard -- located the destroyed aircraft near Cudjoe Key in about three to four feet of water, according to the report.

As ANN has reported, there are two blimps at Cudjoe Key -- one operated by the State Department and the other by the Air Force, according to the USAF website.
The State Department blimp transmits the US government-run station TV Marti into Cuba. One of the uses of the Air Force blimp is to help monitor drug trafficking.

The blimp and blimp site are operated by Lockheed Martin, a contractor for the federal government.

A camera mounted near the blimp recorded the plane entering the restricted airspace around the blimp.

"The video record showed the airplane's left wing striking the tether, and the airplane entering a spin, and descending seemingly uncontrolled, departing the camera's field of view," the report concludes.

FMI: Read The NTSB Preliminary Report