WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: The Ghost Blimp 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.600 Hey, guys, Steve here, you are listening to one of 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:06.600 our original twenty six episodes. If you listen to any 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:09.280 of our new episodes, you're gonna notice that we're sounding 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:11.639 a little different in these ones. Yeah, there's a reason 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:14.520 for that. There is they've been remastered. They have been 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.040 remastered because they had a really annoying hum. Yeah, I 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.480 mean a huge thanks to listener James for doing almost 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:23.880 all of the legwork on this thing. They'll also notice 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:25.880 if you had listened to what we're calling the last 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.639 twenty six episodes before and you're re listening now, the 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.160 music and sound effects are gone. Yes, we've we've gone 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:35.720 back to straight audio, so be warned. We sound a 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:38.000 little different today than we do in what you're about 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:46.760 to listen to. Yeah, and bye bye, thinking sideways. I 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:57.080 don't think you never know stories of things. We simply 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:03.280 don't know the answer too. Hello, and welcome to the show, 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:09.000 Steve im And we're going to tell you a strange story. 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:10.920 Do you have a strange story for us? I do 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.200 have a strange story for all right. This is the 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:18.839 story of the ghost Ship. The ghost ship, the only 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.959 GHO ship ship ship. Okay, it's called doug o ship. 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:24.840 But it's a ghost ship. I gotta say, I love 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:27.679 ghost ship stories. I know they are your favorite. You've 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.080 told them around the campfire a lot. They're they're pretty 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:37.240 freaking awesome. Yeah, right, Well, this story begins in so 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.040 the United States was still in the middle of, or 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.360 near the end of, they didn't know it, World War two. 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:48.400 The country was worried about attacks on the western coast 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:53.040 from the Japanese. So what they decide to do is 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.559 the country decides, or the air force decides that would 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:00.880 be a great idea, is let's get blimps because they 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.920 can hover in one spot for long periods of time 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.800 without using a lot of fuel, and they can patrol 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:11.560 the coast, watch out for ships and sobs. And there's 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.200 actually talking about bringing the blimp back. I didn't know 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.799 that there is there. There actually has talk about that. 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:19.799 Very cool, has many uses, and they're cheap to keep 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:24.200 up in the air and very safe historically, except for 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.760 like you know, the hydrogen, the hydrogen filled ones. Well 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.440 there's that, and what we're going to talk about. So 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.400 in nineteen forty, the U. S. Navy I think I 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.280 said air Force before, but it was the Navy purchased 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:41.080 from the Goodyear Company. They're blimp and named the Ranger. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.679 It worked, so they decide we're going to get a 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.040 couple of more of these in March. On March five two, 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.840 the L eight was purchased from but good Year and 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.200 that was the blimp in question. Uh. Now, so it's 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:59.200 a blimp story. It's not a ghost ship. It's a 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.919 ghost blimp. Yes, yes it is. It is a blimp, 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.600 but they call it the ghost ship. Okay, isn't it 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:12.720 is an airship after all? Exactly? But better ghos. Uh. 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:17.320 Not only did these blimps do routine patrols up and 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:22.120 down the coast, they also were involved in some clandestine operations. 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:26.480 The L A was actually involved in an operation where 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:30.240 it left the San Francisco Bay on the eleventh of 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:36.320 April and it was hauling a secret three pound cargo 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.440 which it took out to see and it met the 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:45.440 aircraft carrier the USS Hornet. Today we know that the 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:50.160 cargo actually was parts for the B five bombers, and 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:55.320 that the Hornet initiated the first attack on the islands 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.480 of Japan, So our first air raids actually on Japan. 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.600 Those were known as the Do Little raids, so they 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:06.760 played a pretty important part at the time. But we're 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:10.680 gonna move forward in time from there to August six. 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.360 The L eight is scheduled to go on a routine 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:19.159 patrol to look for submarines. Supposed to leave Treasure Island, 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:21.719 which is in the San Francisco Bay. It's gonna head 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.719 on about a thirty mile trip out to sea, circle around, 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:30.160 look around, and come back. The l ad always normally 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:34.040 would have a crew of three. In this instance, there 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:39.240 was Lieutenant Ernest Cody and Sign Charles Adams and machine 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:43.000 just made third Class James Hill, so we've got three men. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:47.040 They meet the cargo load of this particular blimp that's 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:51.160 the Mexican Carrier around its weight limb. Unfortunately, that day 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.560 it was very foggy, and as we know, when it's foggy, 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:58.960 condensation forms on everything. A blimp of that size gets 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.919 so much water a condensation on it that it changed 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.960 the weight dynamics of the blimp and they realized that 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.560 it had too much weight, so it couldn't take the 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.279 entire crew. The Navy decides, well, we're gonna go ahead 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.280 and just send it out with two of you, and 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:17.560 we're gonna leave someone behind. So it turns out that 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.800 James Hill is the one who's a let who's chosen 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:25.160 to stay behind him. Yeah, yeah, indeed. Well, he goes 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.600 on board, he sets up all the controls, make sure 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:33.360 everything's in line, and then he walks away from the blimp. 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.200 Now keep in mind, this crew had been on this 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.039 blimp many many times, so it wasn't as if it 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.480 was their first run out. Uh So, at six o 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.800 three am on the sixteenth of August two, the L 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.479 eight takes off from Treasure Island. About an hour and 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.480 a half into the patrol, which would be seven forty 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.440 two in the morning or am, Cody radios back that 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:01.840 he has spotted a potential oils and they're gonna go investigate. 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:06.360 That's the last time anybody ever heard from the crew. 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.919 Now keep in mind, I'm I'm specifying here. It's the 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:14.080 crew about eleven fifteen were in day or in merse 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.080 said at the beach, California, it's a lovely day. We're 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.680 all hanging out on the beach, and all of a sudden, 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:26.080 the crowds watch a blimp drifting in from the ocean 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:31.320 and descending. It descends enough that it hits the cliffs 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:36.960 out on the beach and snags snags there. The breeze 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:39.719 hits it, I'm not exactly sure, it damages an engine, 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:45.320 and somehow the blimp breaks free. Crowds are walking towards it. 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:47.960 They want to know what's going on right up until 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:52.760 a depth charge falls off, at which point everybody runs away. Okay, 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.520 well the depth charge, luckily enough, didn't go off, but 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:02.000 the blimp, now lightened load continue news on inland. It 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:07.200 eventually comes to rest in the four hundred block in 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:14.960 Daily City on Bellevue Avenue. The yeah, because in the 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.520 process it was a terrible fender bender. In the process 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.880 of coming down, it hits a house and a couple 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:25.080 of cars. Of course. Uh yeah, not something I would 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:31.840 want to have running into my house. A pictures, No, 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.920 unfortunately they didn't have them on the iPhone wasn't around yet. 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.840 Uh So we do have a quote from that time, 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.640 and the quote reads is such it was Mrs Appleton. 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.440 She said that all of a sudden, this huge beheemoth 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:49.320 had settled and scraped across the top of a roof. 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.960 She said it sounded like change dragging, but the entire 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:55.600 house was blacked out because of the size of this thing. 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.160 She raced to the front window, wondering what in the 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.160 world was going on, and she saw the rest of it. 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:06.120 The gondola hit the cross arm, broke off part of 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.800 the mechanism, and then gradually settled to the ground. So 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.440 this thing scraped across the roof. It was big enough 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.520 and made quite a lot of noise. The ship comes 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.880 to rest in the middle of the street, and what happens, 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.240 of course, the envelope but it holds all the gas, 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:26.800 collapses and just swamps everything. Can you imagine, It's like 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:29.400 that thing just lands in your house. You wake up 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:31.760 and it's collapsed over your house. You're looking at that 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.640 the windows. You can't see anything. You know, you're looking 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:37.600 at the clock. It's eleven o'clock in the morning, but 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.559 it's blackout. This is weird. Can't see two feet in 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:44.200 front of me exactly. That would be a little Did 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.959 anybody get trapped underneath this thing when it collapsed, Well, no, 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.560 no bystanders were trapped, but there were a lot of 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:51.960 people who were kind of following it as it was 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.000 coming down, So as soon as it hit people were 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:59.680 on the scene. Everybody presumed that the crew must be 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.360 stuck in the gondola, the part that hangs on the 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:05.280 bottom that the crew hangs out in or works in. 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:10.280 And so they rushed to their aid. They hack and 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.760 they caught, and they saw their way through the envelope, 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.440 desperately trying to get to the gondola. Gentleman who lived 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.160 across the street by the name of William Morris. He 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.280 was a volunteer firefighter, and he went out there and 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.320 did his everything he could, and he was one of 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:27.400 the first people who got through the envelope and got 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.000 to the gondola. When he got there, he said, and 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.160 he said, it was very strange because, as the quote goes, 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.120 the doors were open and nobody was in the cabin. 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:43.720 The crew was completely gone nowhere near. Nobody knows where 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:49.400 they are. They're never found. The Navy launches a land 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.200 and sea search. They go everywhere looking for him, but 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:57.200 they can't find them. A year later, the Navy declared 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:02.600 Cody and Adams officially deceived east and the search officially ended. 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.200 So did they I assume that they examined this the 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.800 envelope or whatever you call it, for both holes. Well, 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.679 the problem was that the bystanders who were attempting to 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:19.120 help destroyed it. It was to the to the point 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:21.920 that it was not salvageable. Did they find any clues 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:24.800 in the gondola, Well, they did find some things in 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.080 the gondola. Uh, and and some of this is weird, 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:31.720 some of it's odd, and we will We'll just go 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:36.040 ahead and we'll start with the gondola itself. When the 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.920 navy arrived, they inspected it, and they found that all 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.760 the parachutes were accounted for. The life belts, which is 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.440 the equivalent of a life vest, were gone, the life 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:51.920 raft was still in place, and the radio was working normally, 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:55.440 so everything seemed in order. Most of the fuel was 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.439 still left in the ship. Uh. The engines were switched on, 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:02.280 but weren't actually working at the time, obviously because of 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.800 the crash with the cliff. And Mers said, uh. And 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.800 there was a briefcase in the gondola that still contained 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:13.920 the classified files that were kept on on the ship. 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.640 There were rumors at one point for many years that 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.880 there was a half eaten sandwich and a warm cup 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:24.199 of coffee still on the console. That's been debunked that 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:26.960 that actually never happened. But you do come across that 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.880 when you find this story there. Now, there are a 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:32.600 couple of other things that we know that we found 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:37.360 through some research that's been done. I had talked about earlier. 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:39.400 There was a dish or a big dent in the 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:43.600 middle of the envelope. What that was from is that 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:50.240 at some point the blimp began to rise just essentially 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:52.839 straight up to the point that it got high enough 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.480 in the atmosphere that the pressure was too great and 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:59.839 it caused a automatic pressure release valve to go off, 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.800 vented a bunch of the gas, therefore reducing its lifting power. 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.840 So as it came back down into the pressure atmospheric 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:11.920 pressures meant to work under the bag wasn't as full, 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.400 so it sank, and that's why there was that giant dip, 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:18.320 which explains why as it was coming inland it continued 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:23.000 to drop and eventually crash into the ground. The only 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:27.880 other account that we have of the L eight during 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.920 its mission is from two fishing boats that were out 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:36.560 that day, and they said they did observe the blimp 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:41.280 descending from whatever's normal operation elevation was down to about 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:45.680 three feet above the sea. Presumably that's when they were 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.280 investigating the oil slick that they had radioed back and 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.400 said they were checking out, didn't know if it was 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.840 a submarine or something. Well, as any smart captain would do, 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.440 both captains pulled up their nets and turned around and 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.480 tuck tail. The last thing they wanted to do was 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.840 be in the area. If it dropped a depth charge, 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.679 it would be kind of a bad thing, right. So 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.640 that's as far as it goes. That's as far as 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.040 we know. All of the facts that are associated with 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.720 the l A and there's nothing else weird that they discovered. Nope, 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:22.800 nothing else. It crew is gone. Everything that should be 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.439 in place is pretty much in place. Nothing that they 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.760 can tell is missing, Nothing out of the ordinary that 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:35.120 they can tell has happened. Well, of course, begin and 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:39.520 there's a lot of some crazy, some not so crazy 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:43.000 theories out there as to what could have happened. I 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.000 think it's actually quite obvious what happened. It was a 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:49.440 gay suicide pact. Okay, Jenny, Yeah, you're you're absolutely right. 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.360 That's why all this time, looking at the story, you've 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:58.760 you've figured it out. It was obvious all along. Yeah, 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.200 what was any thinking? All right, here's what the theories are. 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:07.720 We know that the L eight was out looking for 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:11.720 Japanese submarines. That was their primary mission was to find 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.959 submarines to protect the coastline so that the Japanese didn't 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.640 attack us on our own soil, or at least in 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.640 the water on our own soil. Well, some people believe 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:25.080 that what must have happened is that when the blimp descended, 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.760 it did indeed find a Japanese sub, and that the 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:34.480 crew of the sub overpowered them and pulled them out 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.960 of the Essentially, I'm guessing this means the gondolas a 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.720 couple feet off the water, right against the water, essentially, 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:45.160 and that they overpowered them and they would have gotten 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:48.840 that low though, right, that's that's the hard part, and 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:53.000 then stuffed them in the hold and took off. Now 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:55.160 there's some cread Now there's some creed ins to this show, 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:57.880 because if you think about, well, let's say that it's 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.200 just floating there and there's no crew on the top up, 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.640 one of them might have climbed down the ladder to 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.920 check it out, got captured, and then you know, with 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:10.000 a gun to his head, the Japanese said get down here, 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.640 or we kill your friend. Except for that, wouldn't they 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:17.240 want that classified information? That was on the blimp. If 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:18.960 they went into the blimp, you would think they would 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:20.920 understand they would look for that. Maybe they didn't go 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.920 into the blimp. But the other problem with that theory 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.240 is that the radio was working. Don't you think that 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:29.320 the first thing that you would do when you found 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:33.040 a sub floating is to call back and say, I 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.760 found a sub. Yeah, I believe what I just found. 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:41.360 Nothing like that, so we don't. Isn't some navy code 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:46.720 for Japanese sub? Nothing I have ever heard. No, So 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:51.440 let's see. There is theory number two. Theory number two 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.480 says that it was a love triangle, that these men 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:58.200 were involved in a love triangle with a woman that 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:02.120 they were both seeing on show are Now here's the 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:05.760 hard part about this, or what what doesn't hold water 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:11.320 for me on that is that Cody was twenty seven 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:15.360 and Adams was thirty eight, so I would guess that 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:20.240 they probably wouldn't likely be chasing the same woman. Maybe 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.760 they were, it's hard to say. It is possible. But 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.160 the two friends, by the way, uh, there's no records 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:30.040 to say what their relationship to each other was other 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.760 than they were co workers that they served on this 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:34.840 ship and that's all we know that that I can 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.600 find is. I did go to some navy sides, looked 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:40.400 up to a lot of stuff, but that kind of 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.920 information never seems to have been reported, none of it 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.760 was recorded. Anyway. Here's what we have. We have a 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.000 we have a love trying. These two men are on 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:54.560 on the l a and a fight breaks out. They're 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:58.000 fighting for her love. They get into a fist fight. 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:02.320 One thing leads to another, or they accidentally fall into 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.359 the door of the gondola and they both fall out 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.920 to their deaths at sea. Surely there's some safety mechanism there, though, 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.719 uh well, you know it's it's funny, but the gondola, 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.320 the walls of the gondola are the metal is six 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:24.119 millimeters thick, extremely thin, so I'm guessing it had to 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:28.640 be thin to be light. Also, when I was doing 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:32.240 my research on this, came across reports from air or 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.440 navy men who had been in that or similar gondolas 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:41.000 who had mentioned that they were extremely flimsy. So it 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.840 did have a bar to lock the door. But presumably 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:46.399 if the whole thing is made to be as light 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:50.840 as possible, it's conceivable that somebody slamming into it could 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.400 just pop the whole thing open. That's true, so there 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.400 is some possibility, but it was you know, maybe maybe 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.159 the Biastanders who opened it up don't remember us the 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.680 door already open when they finally got to the gondola 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:04.840 or was it. Holding to Morris, who was the first 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.840 one to get through to the gondola, he said the 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:12.000 door was wide open. We don't know. Did it get 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.520 popped open when it ran into the cliff, was it 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.080 open ahead of time? There's there's not a lot to 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.679 support it. Again, the details on this one are one 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.679 of those weird military items where things have been held back, 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:28.960 not necessarily reported, so it's it's hard to get all 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.560 those details. I think that they could ask some of 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:35.720 the witnesses on the front, the beach and etcetera. But 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.560 then again, you know as well as I do, that 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:45.960 witness statements tend to be fraught with errors and they 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.320 conflict constantly. So it does. It's hard to say. But 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.399 unfortunately this was seventy plus years ago. Not likely to 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.159 find many of those folks around anymore than I tell you. 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:01.879 But there is one final theory, and this is a 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.119 theory that personally I hold it. I think is is 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:11.960 probably the good one, and it's the burn to triangle. No. 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:16.719 The last one is that it may have been a 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.920 complete freak accident that claimed both of their lives. When 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:23.879 the gondala was found, like I said, the door latch 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.720 was open and the door was open, which obviously enough 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:30.040 is not the way that it should happen when it's 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:34.600 in flight. There they do say there's a safety bar, 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:36.840 but again I have a feeling that that safety bar 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:41.360 is probably pretty minimal and flimsy, especially considering a nWo 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.040 we were really worried about safety as much as we 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:48.080 are now. It's not some double latch system. It's probably 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:51.600 just a door bolt door handle with a bolt in it. 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:53.400 But still, these guys have been working at this thing 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:55.040 for a long time. They probably no better than it 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.760 go smashing into the door. It's very true. But here's 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:02.720 where what I think has probably happened starts to gain 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:07.480 some some footing. There was a microphone plugged in inside 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:13.360 the cockpit, and that microphone, uh, it goes to a loudspeaker. 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.840 That loudspeaker was dangling outside of the gondola, so it 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.680 was outside. So what people are thinking might have happened 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:25.800 is that there was something mechanically that went wrong, how 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.640 you know, part way through their journey, two hours into 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:32.040 the trip, and one of the men decided that he 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:36.480 would try and go out and fix it ran into trouble. 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.840 So the so crewman number one is outside, crewmen number 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:44.320 two is inside using the loudspeakers. Obviously you're moving along 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:46.560 and it's windy, it's loud, so you gotta use the 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.240 loudspeaker to be heard, and that what he was doing 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.720 was talking to his his his compatriot, at which point 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:59.280 he ran into trouble. So crewm number one outside swifts 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:03.119 or gets snagged or something happens, and crew and number 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.480 two decides that the best thing to do is to 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:09.479 go out and try and help him, at which point 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.040 they both lose their grip and they both fall to 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:17.320 the sea. But why wouldn't they have radioed back that 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.600 there was a problem. That's the hard part. Now have 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:23.960 do you either of you have you ever known folks 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:28.120 that were in the military. What what is the one 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.679 thing you never tell your boss in the military, Something 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:38.160 went wrong, something's broken. Hey, chief, this is not okay. 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:42.480 They don't like to hear that. And the bravado says 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:46.120 Male Bravado says, I can fix this, fix it now, 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:49.520 which may very well have been the wrong thing to do, 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.080 and it may have been what claimed their lives. But 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:57.360 we don't know nothing exist. Nobody's were ever found. If 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:59.760 they felt to their destincy. You know what it's like 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:03.159 when ships go down out of however, you know, a 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:08.840 small fraction or ever found. Nobody knows whatever happened. Yeah, 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:10.479 that's funny. You wouldn't think they would have found their 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:13.040 bodies because if they were wearing their life belts, that 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:15.000 would have that would have kept their bodies afloat. They 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:19.040 eventually would have washed up for sure. Yeah, unless the 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:24.760 aliens got yeah, or the sharks or the sharks California. 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.640 That's good point. A lot of big toothfish. Yeah, I'm 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:31.600 I'm lying towards the theory that they were actually on 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:33.760 board when it landed and they just crawled away into 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:37.240 the collapse envelope. And because they probably screwed up in 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:40.280 some major way. Uh, and they knew they were going 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:42.119 to be in like, you know, big trouble when they 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:43.960 got back, and so they decided, well, you know what, 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:46.439 let's just sneak off and go change our names and 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.159 move to another state. So what you think it happened 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:51.920 is that they're both sitting there reading time, not paying 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:57.960 attention to play Okay, it would have been Playboy. I 0:22:58.000 --> 0:22:59.440 was not around yet. I don't think it would have 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:02.640 been some in mag. Yeah, some skin mag. And they're 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:05.640 not paying attention and they run into the cliff, at 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:09.639 which point go, oh, yeah, I don't know what to do. 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:12.399 Let's let's run away to Manabe. They bailed on the cliff. 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:16.000 They released the depth charge, and while that was a distraction, 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:18.960 they like, bailed out on the cliff. That's that would 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:23.119 actually scenario. And if they didn't, if they didn't bail 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:25.680 on the cliff, you know, because the depth charge I 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:29.120 would think wouldn't just pop out easily. But they're saying 0:23:29.160 --> 0:23:31.080 like like, hey, we're snagged on this. We gotta get 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:35.359 some lift drop a depth charge drop and yeah that 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:38.320 and that'll get us unsnagged from this thing. Yeah, but 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:41.159 I thought about it everything, And now I'm glad you 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:43.760 bring that up, because I was reading it and thinking 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:47.080 that what it meant was the force of the impact 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:51.400 broken loose. But but your theory is just as possible. 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:53.800 But we need we need we need some lift. Let's 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:56.960 get rid of some weight. Throw everything overboard. It's like that, 0:23:57.359 --> 0:24:00.680 what is it, the old hot air balloon cartoon? And dude, 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:04.160 you throw everything overboard as fast as you can, including 0:24:04.200 --> 0:24:07.080 the guy you don't like. Yeah, very well. Could have happened, 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:10.000 Yeah it couldn't you know, it could be this too. 0:24:10.160 --> 0:24:12.760 Maybe perhaps one of them murdered the other one out 0:24:12.760 --> 0:24:15.680 of sea, pushed his body out, and you know, I 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:17.200 have to waiting it down a little bit or something 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:19.280 like that. And then it comes and and then he's 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:21.440 plotted this out. He's gonna come, he's gonna come back. 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:25.120 He's gonna bring it in really low, right over the beach. 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:27.560 There'll be lots of witnesses that this thing is just 0:24:27.600 --> 0:24:30.600