The Unsolved Mystery of the WW2 Navy Airship That Returned Without Its Crew

On the morning of August 16th, 1942, the U.S. Navy airship L-8 departed Treasure Island to patrol the San Francisco coast for Japanese submarines. With two trained pilots aboard, it should have been a routine mission to fly 30-miles out into the Pacific to the Farallon Islands before completing a round trip around San Francisco Bay. After responding to a suspicious sighting, however, the airship returned to land. It crashed in the middle of an intersection, with the balloon falling on a car. In a mysterious twist, its two crew members were not onboard. They would never be found...

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Dark Docs brings you cinematic short military history documentaries featuring the greatest battles and most heroic stories of modern warfare, covering World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and special forces operations in between.

As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible.

All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.

[checkyoursix]

The XO at a Naval Air Station where I was stationed (back in the 1970's) got his wings in LTA - "lighter than air". They looked like regular Navy pilots wings except the wing was only on one side (he later qualified for multi engine aircraft). He told me a story that back in the day, each airship facility (there were several on each coast) had its own helium-manufacturing plant. (You can still see one at NAS Tillamook, OR). Helium was extremely expensive, and they were taught to NOT waste it. To launch, you had to let helium out of storage into the "bag", and the airship would rise. You couldn't put the helium back into compressed storage while aloft. When you're flying along at, say 1, 000 feet, the airship is at "neutral buoyancy", it can neither climb nor descend. Now, how do you descend, and land ? It was frowned upon to vent the expensive helium into the surrounding air. Pilots were trained to "get 500 lbs heavy". The most common methods of doing this were: (1) Try to find a rain shower and fly under the rain cloud, letting a lot of water stick to the bag. Generally, this method would achieve the desired results, if there was a handy rain shower nearby. (2) The airship had a large bucket with a winch and cable system. The crew could lower the bucket, fill it up with water from the ocean, and gain weight that way (water is pretty heavy stuff, coming in at about 8.3 lbs/gallon as an estimate). Sometimes the crew would bring home dinner in the bucket as they winched it up. In this instance, it would appear the crew might have been engaged in filling their bucket, and weren't secured in the airship. They fell out.

[WardenWolf]

Most likely event: one of them slipped and was dangling out. The other left the controls to try to rescue them, and both wound up falling into the sea.

[OUTLAW__FIVE]

It's weird I've been to Pensacola NAS about 1000 times and have looked at that gondola but never delved into it's back story. Great Video!

[BirdMojo]

I'm old enough to have been around to see these wonderful flying lumps all over the country. We even had one do an emergency landing at our school when I was little, which turned in to a surprise tour. The crew was very nice about it all. You can't truly get an understanding of the massive scale of these until you're right underneath one that's low to the ground.

[thoughtcriminal]

I've always been interested in mysteries but this channel is constantly coming up with stories I've never heard about.
How do you find these stories DD?

[chrisb.]

I remember seeing the Unsolved Mysteries segment on this story many years ago. That show scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid.

[ProfessorGillman]

This si a great channel. I'm sort of an amateur history buff, especially military things, but you have introduced me to stuff I never heard of before. Keep up the good work.

[raymxslappedyall]

y'all remember when the Goodyear blimp said "ice cubes a pimp"?

[CMFL]

Even with stories I've heard before from several sources there are always new details and angles when you present them here. You do a really nice job researching and finding those details that almost nobody else covers!

[commanderable]

they saw one of those anthropomorphic ship girls and bailed out to meet her.

[Idahoguy]

They both fell out and were swept away. One probably was peering out the door and started falling. The pilot probably tried rescue and also fell out. Should have worn a safety strap. A careless accident. The waters off the Golden Gate as especially dangerous. The captain of USS Plunger was lost overboard off the bridge. Off the Golden Gate in 1973. His body was never recovered.

[larryl]

As a youth in the mid 50s I recall seeing these air ships still patrolling in the bay from San Rafael. Don't know when they stopped.

[SonjaPierce]

It's great to see this video and to have Moffett Field acknowledged. They still have the dirigible hangers. I was lucky enough to have worked at Moffett for some time. Thanks for the great video!

[josecolon]

The only thin that speaks to me is that the cliff might be their final resting place, getting out to try and free it they succeed only to fall off the ledge and to their doom

[thednk]

The amount I have learned from this channel is incredible, officially my go to for learning more about war history. Keep up the amazing work!!!

[Trucker_Josh]

My how far Goodyear has fallen in 2020

[williamfeilhauer]

Dark Docs and Dark Sky's, you have it covered better than anyone with these 2. Thanks again for these.

[benzchannel]

I came here for some advertisements and saw a documentary.

[robertsullivan]

It was mentioned that for a short time the Blimp settled on a hillside. Could have someone jumped off then. Not saying I support that theory but it was mentioned.

[kansascityshuffle]

The sub theory is not credible, the Japanese just pulled up like " Hey get down here right now" and they were aight.