A huge blimp sent up by a major soccer team for a promo blitz turned into a real PR nightmare when it came crashing down in a residential area in São Paulo, Brazil ... injuring the pilot.
The airship was cruising from Carapicuíba when it crashed in the suburb of Osasco about 4 miles away around noon Wednesday ... video from bystanders showing the blimp getting shredded after snagging on rooftops.
Locals were sprinting for safety from the plummeting blimp ... making for quite a chaotic scene.
The pilot was rescued from the cabin and hospitalized, but will likely be A-OK -- and no other injuries were reported.
The airship, rented by the Brazilian football team São Paulo FC, was conducting a test flight ahead of Wednesday night’s Copa Libertadores quarterfinals when things took a nosedive. Guess they should’ve stuck to a regular billboard!
The Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Center is now on the case, digging into what went wrong in this airborne fiasco.