What happens when a blimp comes in for a landing following a scheduled flight, but it turns

out the entire crew is completely missing. This is just what happened with a U.S. Navy

observation blimp during World War II in San Francisco. There are no end of theories

for what happened. Today we're going to tell you exactly what we know and exactly what

we don't. The L8 blimp is coming up next on Skeptoid.

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You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com. The riddle of the L8 blimp.

It was a foggy Sunday morning in San Francisco in August of 1942. The United States was at war

with Japan and coastal defenses along the western coast of the U.S. remained on high alert

for prowling Japanese submarines. A daily chore in San Francisco was a sortie by a naval blimp

to look for subs outside San Francisco Bay. Today's flight of the L8 started no differently,

but the way it ended has kept people talking for more than 70 years.

Unlike a rigid airship, a blimp is just an inflated bag with no structure to help it keep its shape.

Only a few hours after it left, the craft was seen drifting in from the ocean,

sagging terribly into a V shape. Some swimmers at the beach tried to grab it by its hanging control

lines but failed. It bounced up the cliffside, dangerously dislodging one of its depth charges

and stopping both its engines in the process, and continued its aimless drifting over the San

Francisco peninsula. Soon it became entangled in some power lines and finally came to rest in the

...