An icon of the sky touched down at Abbotsford International Airport on Tuesday.
One of the Goodyear blimps will be in town until Sunday as part of a West Coast tour. Abbotsford is the only Canadian stop on the tour. The blimp will travel across the Pacific Coast all the way down to its home base in Los Angeles.
The Goodyear Blimp is returning to Canada for the first time since 2007, taking part in the NASCAR Busch Series race in Montreal. But it’s been 13 years since a Goodyear Blimp has made an appearance in the Lower Mainland.
After the tour, the blimp will head to Toronto to provide aerial coverage of the World Cup of Hockey in September.
Company spokesperson Priscilla Tasker says they had a few days of weather delays getting to B.C.
She says the blimp, which is 192 feet in length, requires 13 crew members to launch and land, excluding the pilot.
“The pilot could not do this job on their own,” says Tasker. “It takes six people to just wrangle in the nose lines and another six people who will pull the car in.”
Global BC reporter Ted Field will be able to see the process for himself on a ride-along this afternoon.
He will be joined by 10-year-old Ethan Fleming, a young cancer survivor at BC Children’s Hospital, and his mom.
https://twitter.com/tedfieldglobal/status/750794359327502336/photo/1
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