Residents left without electricity when Flying Bum Plane ‘nose-dived’ into power cables
Firm that built massive blimp admits it crashed into a telegraph pole as it suffered a 'hard landing' at an airfield in Bedfordshire
People living Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire were left without power this week after the "Flying Bum Plane" smashed into electricity cables.
The world's largest aircraft came a cropper on Wednesday and dramatically nosedived into the ground.
HAV, the company developing the plane, originally contradicted witness reports that the aircraft had hit a telegraph pole.
But UK Power Networks said the aircraft did strike with a high voltage power line and five customers were cut off.
A mooring line on the 302ft long Airlander 10, nicknamed 'The Flying Bum,' came into contact with a cable two fields away from the airfield before it nosedived.
The two pilots were unharmed, but the cockpit was smashed.
The company has now apologised for the inconvenience caused by the line hitting the cable.
On the firm's Twitter page, it said: "A mooring line attached to the Airlander did contact a power line outside the airfield.
No damage was caused to the aircraft and this did not contribute to the heavy landing. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused to anyone."
Luckily, no-one was hurt during the crash, which happened just a week after the Bum's maiden voyage.
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An eyewitness said: "A line that was hanging down from the plane hit the telegraph pole about two fields away.
"Then, as it came in to land, it seemed to nose dive and landed on the cockpit, smashing it up."
A spokesman for Hybrid Air Vehicles, the firm which made the Bum, said no-one was hurt during the crash.
The blimp made its maiden voyage last Wednesday and is designed to carry a massive 10 tonne payload.
It took 10 years and £25million to develop and build the craft, which is around 50ft longer than the biggest passenger plane.
Airlander was first developed as a surveillance aircraft for the US government, but the project was scrapped.
It is designed to stay airborne for up to five days at a time and will be able to withstand wind speeds of up to 85 knots.
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