Watch a Blimp Crash Into a Residential Neighborhood

Look out below!

How Deflating

Amidst cries of terror and surprise, a white blimp crash-landed into a residential neighborhood in São Paulo, Brazil on Wednesday, recalling previous airship accidents around the world.

Dramatic video from a pedestrian captures the moment when the dirigible, sporting a red and white sign that reads "Vamos São Paulo," fell into a building in the city's Osasco neighborhood around noon and quickly deflated like a sad party balloon.

More footage taken from farther away shows the blimp descending rapidly into the low-lying neighborhood and then losing air. Brazilian news outlet G1 published a photo showcasing the aftermath: the blimp slumped over a building and misshapen like a decaying, beached whale.

Apparently it was a test flight to promote soccer team São Paulo Futebol Clube, according to G1, before the team played a Wednesday night match in the Copa Libertadores, a South American competition that draws soccer organizations across the continent. (Like the blimp, the soccer team's hopes of getting to the semifinals burst into nothing when they lost on penalties to rivals Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas from Rio de Janeiro.)

Nobody on the ground was injured, though the person inside the blimp's cab came away with minor injuries. Local authorities said they are investigating the cause of the incident.

Blimped Out

It's not everyday an airship crashes because they're not as commonly used as airplanes. When it does, it makes big time news like the blimp in Brazil.

The airship industry has struggled under the long shadow of the Hindenburg disaster of 1937, when a German zeppelin dramatically caught fire while trying to moor itself in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

More than 30 people perished in the accident, caused by hydrogen leaking from the zeppelin, with recent speculation that a stray spark ignited the gas.

What was notable about the fiery crash, besides the photos that have entered the popular imagination, is that it spelled the end of the airship era, a period in the late 19th Century up to the 1930s when large passenger-carrying airships gained a foothold for passenger transportation and even military surveillance.

Nowadays, airships such as blimps use helium, which isn't flammable like hydrogen, and people usually harness them for promotions and advertisements like the one that fell in Brazil on Wednesday.

More on blimps: Google’s Co-founder is Building a Gargantuan $150 Million Blimp