2011 Lightship Europe airship crash
American Blimp A-60+ · Caught fire after fuel leak caused by a broken gear and overloading
From Oberursel, Hesse, Germany to Reichelsheim, Hesse, Germany
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11WA394
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 4
- Survivors
- 3
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
American Blimp A-60+
- Aircraft type
- American Blimp A-60
- Category
- Blimp · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- G-TLEL
- Operator
- Lightship Europe
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Oberursel, Hesse, GermanyTo Reichelsheim, Hesse, Germany
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Estimated position: Reichelsheim (Odenwald), near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
On June 12, 2011, an American Blimp A-60+, operated by Lightship Europe, caught fire during landing at Reichelsheim. The initial impact during the landing procedure damaged the blimp's landing gear which started a fuel leak that eventually lead to a fire. The blimp was on an advertisement flight with passengers. Out of the 4 occupants on board, the pilot died.
Accident
At 8:30 am local time the airship began preparation for the flight, and the gas started being pumped inside it. At 9:30 am the load sheet was redacted, the aircraft had a weight of nearly 1,400 kg. At 6:08 pm the airship took off for the eighth flight of the day, on board that flight were pilot Nerandzic (who was the second pilot to fly the airship that day) and the three passengers. The flight plan was to fly over Bad Homburg, to allow the journalists to take photos of the preparation for a concert. After two hours of flight the pilot contacted the Reichelsheim airfield to report his position in preparation for landing; at that time he was 5 nautical miles south-west of the airfield. During the approach the passengers observed that the aircraft was descending quickly, and at 8:15 pm the airship impacted the ground about 470 m away from the landing spot. After the impact the occupants started to smell fuel on board and heat was perceived inside the gondola, this eventually led to a fire, that started to develop in the aft part of the cabin. The ground crew reported smoke coming from the cabin, and soon after the three passengers disembarked and the airship started to climb again. The aircraft reached 100 m of height, and the fire spread throughout the rest of the cabin and the envelope. At 8:20 pm the airship crashed about 400 m away from the touchdown point. The final report concluded that the landing gear moved so far back that the steel cable ruptured. As a result, the airship slid on the ground for a few meters and, during that movement, the broken gear ruptured a valve causing the fuel leak.
Investigation and cause
Final report
The final report concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error, and that the wind conditions at the landing airport and the erroneous loading of the airship were contributing factors.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2011 Lightship Europe airship crash” (revision 1365305766, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
Under the jurisdiction and control of the German government.
Probable cause
Under the jurisdiction and control of the German government.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2011 Lightship Europe airship crash
- Revision
- 1365305766 · 2026-07-21 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q130519648
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record CEN11WA394
- Event ID
- 20110615X72742
- Case number
- CEN11WA394
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2011 Lightship Europe airship crash" (page 77861867, revision 1365305766); merged with NTSB case CEN11WA394 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record CEN11WA394
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): An advertising blimp on a promotional flight: airship aerial work, general aviation. The article: "The blimp was on an advertisement flight with passengers."
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2011 Lightship Europe airship crash" and NTSB case CEN11WA394, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.