CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – A Goodyear blimp (search) crash-landed Thursday in an industrial park and the two people aboard were briefly trapped inside while electrical crews cleared the site, authorities said.
The "Stars & Stripes" blimp may have gotten tangled in power lines when it went down near Pompano Beach Air Park (search), where it's based, said Coral Springs police spokesman Mike Moser.
The two people on board weren't injured, said Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration (search). FAA investigators were on the scene hours later.
Authorities said bad weather might have forced the blimp down. There were thunderstorms in the area at the time.
"It went right over our building and was making really loud noises," Maryann Clark, general manager of a Red Lobster restaurant, told The Miami Herald. She said restaurant workers and customers looked out the windows to see the blimp coming down tail-first, at a steep angle.
"It looked like it was trying to land in our parking lot, but there are too many trees," she said.
The blimp is one of three Goodyear blimps based in the United States. Goodyear leases about 32 acres at the air park as a blimp base, according to the park's Web site.
The other two are the Spirit of Goodyear, based in Akron, Ohio, and the Spirit of America, based in Carson, Calif.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox