November 19, 2002 Snoopy Takes A Nosedive

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By Arturo Weiss, Newswriter

Good grief, Charlie Brown! Snoopy is grounded. Is seems that MetLife's blimp -- Snoopy One – encountered some foul weather recently and the result was a rather rough landing. Last week, the insurance company's airborne marketing machine was in the Valdosta, Ga., area, when it crossed paths with a thunderstorm. During the encounter, the blimp narrowly missed a house before high winds wrapped it around a pine tree, tearing a hole in the bag and deflating the dirigible. The pilot escaped from the blimp's gondola moments before impact, which was described as "a controlled crash." A similar incident struck Snoopy One's sister ship in September 2001 when high winds snapped the blimp's moorings at a Kansas City airport sending the unmanned vessel skyward before it landed in a nearby community.