Comments by "Hallands Menved" (@Hallands.) on "L-8: Mystery of the \"Ghost Blimp\"" video.

Well, both pilots were career officers with perfect records and the radio was found in working order. This means that capture by Japanese and the speculative love triangle theory can be discarded. Had they observed a Japanese submarine, they would have radioed in immediately to ensure no American vessels were there and get permission to drop depth charges. They would've keept the blimp high, out of firing range. But they went low, circling for at least twenty minutes, so something quite different must've caught their attention. I bet they found a Rum-runners or Drug-smugglers drop-point with crates floating below the water surface, held down by sacks of salt, and decided to wait for the first crate to surface, when the salt had dissolved. Perhaps they underestimated the weight of the crate and suffered a mishap or they were interrupted by the pickup boat's crew and killed. But this would explain the missing safety bar and the strange arrangement with the microphone dangling outside, hooked up to and external loudspeaker. It's a way to allow communication between a pilot and one hanging outside, guiding the blimp to a crate. A blimp doesn't circle for twenty minutes without piloting only to then take off in a straight line. And they would have been conscientious enough to radio in at the prescribed time. So within the first hour since last contact, they must've been prevented from doing so, either falling from the blimp attempting to raise a crate, or shot be the arriving smugglers, coming to pick up the cargo. The blimp, now unmanned, would then take of on idle in whatever direction it was pointed. The love triangle story has no substance, as none of the pilots disembarked on land. There were only two touchdowns there, and both were observed. The leaking helium might actually be due to relatively small gunshot holes...
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