ARDMORE, OK -- A 79-year-old man piloting his homemade blimp crashed near Plainview High School Sunday night.
It happened around 8:45 p.m. in the 5100 Block of S. Painview Rd. in Ardmore.
The Love County Sheriff's Office actually received the original call that a blimp of some kind had lost altitude and crashed. They passed word along to Carter County O.H.P. who then got in touch with Southern Oklahoma Search and Rescue.
S.O.S.R. located the crash site just off Plainview road around 10 p.m. When they did they found the pilot, Marvin Polzien, relatively uninjured.
"Things just didn't go right. There was no calamity. I know what happened, and I will correct it tomorrow. If we can get it off that plateau and get it down in the flats. I'm sure I can get the motor started and fly it out of there," Polzien said.
Polzien says that one of the 3 motors on board failed, and that caused the crash.
O.H.P. says that the F.A.A. will not be getting involved, and that Polzein will not be charged with any crime.
UPDATE: After an elderly Ardmore man crashed a blimp he was working on and walked away without a scratch, on Monday the blimp was the main concern.
It turns out 79-year-old Marvin Polzein says he did not tie down the balloon like he'd thought, and sometime this morning it flew away. Polzein says the blimp crashed Sunday evening off Plainview Road due to motor issues. On Monday he was out searching for the blimp that he built himself.
Polzein received a call around 1:20 p.m. Monday that the blimp had flown south all the way to Decatur, Texas.
"Anytime you're doing something experimental there's problems that always pop up that are unforeseen. I've fixed so many of those problems, I thought we were probably to the end of the problems, and it's going to work and I think I’m almost there. It's a learning experience and as far as people saying "You're going to kill yourself", well I don't think so," Polzein says.
Polzein says he is just happy that the blimp did not land in a dangerous area and that no one was injured.
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