Along the way, its dragging cable knocked out power lines.
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An unmanned Army surveillance blimp broke loose from its mooring and floated over Pennsylvania triggering blackouts as it dragged its tether across power lines.
The bulbous, 240-foot helium-filled blimp finally came down near Muncy, a small town about 80 miles north of Harrisburg. It covered about 241 kilometres in all.
Two F-16 fighter jets were monitoring the surveillance system as it hovered at about 16,000 feet.
Even before the current incident, the blimp’s presence in the skies over the eastern USA had generated controversy.
NORAD spokesperson Mike Kucharek said that it is not yet clear why the blimp got loose, and that is part of an investigation.
A widespread power outage has been reported in the area, prompting Bloomsburg University to cancel classes for the remainder of the day. The 240-foot-long, milk-white blimps, visible for miles around, have been hobbled by defective software, vulnerability to bad weather and poor reliability.
The local electric utility, PPL, reported about 20,000 customers without power in the area, although it was unclear how many could be attributed to the blimp.
Similar blimps were frequently used during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the Harford County tether, near Aberdeen Proving Grounds’ Edgewood Arsenal facility, broke today, about halfway up to the JLENS aerostat, allowing the unmanned, unpowered blimp to be carried off while trailing 6,700 feet of cable.
A Raytheon Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) aerostat is pictured at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in this February 24, 2012 photo obtained on February 1, 2013. Apparently, this blimp was part of a $2.7 billion defense program that was supposed to provide an early detection network against drones, cruise missiles, and or other projectiles, according to the LA Times back in September.
“Anyone who sees the aerostat is advised to contact 911 immediately; people are warned to keep a safe distance from the airship and tether as contact with them may present significant danger”, Aberdeen Proving Ground officials said in a statement.
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A blimp associated with NORAD’s surveillance of the East Coast that became untethered from its mooring in Maryland is now on the ground and authorities have it secured, Pennsylvania State Police told CNN. They’re created to detect enemy aircraft and missiles, but they can also detect cars on the ground and ships in the ocean.
