We're betting that there were no illuminated pennants flying along the length of the mooring cable that brought down a family's Cessna 182 at around 11:15pm Friday 20th April off Miami. The cable was attached to a blimp flying at a height somewhere above 4000ft and centered supposedly within a promulgated restricted area. That didn't stop an experienced pilot from mistakenly entering that area, hitting the cable and dying - along with two family members. The three were on their way back to Leesburg International Airport from a day trip in Key West. The blimp, owned by the Air Force, is part of a radar system used in the Florida Keys to track drug traffickers. Local authorities said the balloon was lighted, but its cable wasn't. The Cessna's debris was recovered about 200 yards off the northern shore of Cudjoe Key, about 25 miles north of Key West. Cables on cable-cars in the French and Italian Alps all get hit by aircraft from time to time. It's not practical to affix illuminated or luminous pennants to gondola cables but it certainly is to a moored blimp's tether and a TV or radio antenna's wire-stays. At Air Safety Week we've addressed these simplistic, "pea and thimble" safety precaution issues before (Related Link). You just cannot rely upon the printed word to do the job in a NOTAM or via a symbol on a chart. If that was the case, you wouldn't need red obstruction lights atop tall buildings, towers and topographic high points (mountain-peaks and ridgelines). It's too easy to get caught out as "catch of the day". Alternatively, as it's a radar blimp, the USAF should think about fitting a proximity sensor to trigger a bright-red flashing laser - on the blimp and the anchor-point - to cook off and warn all aircraft intruding within five miles.