Accident damages experimental airship
TUSTIN, Calif. – A $35 million lighter-than-air dirigible was damaged and leaked helium Monday after part of a hangar roof collapsed at a former military base, authorities said.
The partial collapse was reported just after 7:45 a.m. at one of the World War II-era blimp hangars on the grounds of the former Marine Corps Air Station, said Capt. Steve Concialdi of the Orange County Fire Authority.
A hazardous-material crew was called and the leak was stopped about 1 p.m., he said.
The cause of the collapse was not known but debris was believed to have fallen on the experimental airship, which is more than 200 feet long.
The dirigible is a test model being developed by Worldwide Aeros.
When fully developed, the airship will be capable of carrying 66 tons of cargo.
Carter blasts widening of U.S. income gap
OAKLAND, Calif. – Former President Jimmy Carter says the income gap in the United States has increased to the point where members of the middle class resemble the Americans who lived in poverty when he occupied the White House.
Carter offered his assessment of the nation’s economic challenges Monday at a construction site in Oakland – the first of five cities he and his wife, Rosalynn, plan to visit this week to commemorate their three-decade alliance with Habitat for Humanity.
During an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, he said that years of tax breaks for the wealthy, a minimum wage untethered from the inflation rate and electoral districts drawn to maximize political polarization have reduced the quality of life for all but the richest Americans.
Carter says that even comparatively well-off regions such as the San Francisco Bay Area have been hard-hit by foreclosures and need more affordable housing.
On Tuesday, the former president and first lady are scheduled to help renovate homes in a section of Silicon Valley.
Associated Press
