Heavier than aircraft are far better in winds,
in terms of control, but in terms of actual safety?...I don't know.
Again, if you have a solar-powered, helium-filled airship being blown about by high winds, if you can even get close enough to the ground to even jump out, you could survive.
If you're in a jet or prop plane, at those wind speeds, you can still lose control, get hit by sheers, and forced to crash suddenly and explode. When you're forced down--again, the difference between helium and hydrogen is very important here--in the airship, there's no explosion, no fire. There's got to be a safety argument there, somewhere, for airship.
OK, this is not a very pleasant or positive way to think, and scientists don't like things that aren't as predictable or where we still lack data and knowledge. Wind is one of those areas! Wind sheer is deadly, when unpredictable, to any kind of aircraft. We're still in a data-gathering mode about winds and especially wind sheer.
These Aussie designs and some others I've seen, have basically eliminated the threat of side winds, by using a round or wheel shaped bag, with the gondola suspended not from a cable(s) but from an axle that rotates with the engine, not the movement of the circular bag, when sideways winds are occurring.
That leaves the updrafts and downdrafts, which admittedly are a risk. You can cut into the risk at very low altitude from the ground, with reversible electromagnets and increasing the weight of the gondola.
There may be other gadgetry, and of course there is the traditional venting of gas or dropping of ballast to compensate for sudden updrafts or downdrafts at low altitude.
At higher altitude, data about lower altitude crosswinds below and also data on volatile updrafts/downdrafts, can force a decision to remain at altitude until more stability returns.
These things are more possible than ever before--and will be increasingly so--using advanced computers teamed with advanced meteorological technologies and meteorological data available today. But having the option of entrance and egress via aircraft while in the air, and the solar power for the engines, cuts into the necessity of landing, as we noted. That does, in turn, require smaller heavier-than-air craft.
Extendible gondolas and gondolas that can change shape, and the same kinds of safety devices now available in airliners, such as the sheets that drop out of the side doors for emergency exits, could also add to the safety of any passengers and crew.
One scenario that would still be a threat and for which no gadgetry is available to help, would be the one where the airship has become too unstable to be usable due to sudden and unpredicted wind sheers/updrafts/downdrafts. Hurricane force winds are unlikely to be non-predicted anymore, however, as they were in the '20s. It's undeniable that updrafts and downdrafts could be fatal, but we can cut into how often that is the case, as never before.
We are facing climate change, more storms and the threat of terrorism. All of that, is an argument against airships to an extent. They could be hijacked just like any other aircraft. But just as they are unusable as effective weapons of war, it's unlikely they're usable as terror weapons.
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