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Updated: 8.41 pm
AN UNMANNED US Army surveillance blimp broke loose from its ground tether at a military base in Maryland this evening, and drifted over nearby Pennsylvania as two Air Force fighter jets set off in pursuit.
The blimp’s long tether snapped power lines, causing electricity cuts, but officials said later this evening that it had been grounded, almost 140 miles from its starting point.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado said the blimp detached from its station in Maryland at about 12.20 pm local time (4.20 pm Irish time), and initially travelled north at an altitude of about 16,000 feet.
Police in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, confirmed they had been getting 911 calls about blimp sightings, but they could not provide additional details.
Witnesses reported seeing the blimp drifting between Jerseytown and Turbotville, north of Harrisburg, the capital of the state of Pennsylvania. Its tether was snapping power lines.
This map shows the approximate, 137-mile (220-km) route the JLENS blimp took this evening:
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.
Bloomsburg University cancelled classes, citing a “widespread power outage.”
One student there posted this video to Twitter, showing the blimp hovering overhead, and appearing to descend.
The blimp is the kind used extensively in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to provide ground surveillance around U.S. bases and other sensitive sites.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter explained:
My understanding is, from having seen these break loose in Afghanistan on a number of occasions, we could get it to descend and then we’ll recover it and put it back up. This happens in bad weather.
Carter did not say what the two F-16 fighters tracking the runaway blimp might be asked to do or whether he considered it a threat to aviation.
The F-16s were launched from the Atlantic City Air National Guard Base in New Jersey, according to the NORAD statement.
The aircraft is known as a Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System , or JLENS, and can be used as part of a missile defense system.
It was not immediately clear how the blimp came loose.
Contains reporting by the Associated Press.
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Surely the good citizens of the USA can shoot it down….
Cold. It wasn’t alive, so they had no interest in shooting it.
sorry. Colm. Bloody predicted text.
..whereas people in Ireland would use Semtex or launch mortars at it out of a transit van. (Sorry lads I couldn’t resist joining in with a bit more cultural stereotyping)
“An enormous blimp has broken loose and is floating across America” Should be Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, I think?
Why did the guy video a concrete wall?
Was he expecting the wall to take off as well?
Hey there, blimpy boy, flying through the sky so very high!
If there was a lack of hot air they should try the Dail…
James O’Reilly found alive and well in the USA?
Watch what??? It’s parked not floating across America.
I thought you were talking about Enda Kenny there for a sec. Big Blimp.
Buttzilla
Surveillance blimp? It’s kind of hard to miss…
Not if its flying at 80-100,000 feet where these things are designed to operate.
2 drunk Islamic terrorists looking to hijack a plane and crash it into the pentagon.
If terrorists knocked out the power for 20,000 houses on the east coast who would be blamed?
The terrorists?
While I agree the terrorists would be responsible, my poorly made point would that FOX news and it’s acolytes;the republican candidates would blame the President as apparently all evil in the world flows directly from him.
Nobody blamed Bush for 9/11, Nobody blamed Clinton for the US Cole or the Kenya or Tanzania bombings. Americans don’t blame their Presidents for the attacks. But they do expect them to get those responsible by any means necessary.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kv6tAi8nk8 one of many clips easily available.
Ferguson wasn’t a Terrorist attack it was a domestic riot and it was Obamas comments that inflamed the situation. There is a difference between internal domestic strife and being attacked from outside by a Terrorist organization.
Who mentioned being attacked from outside? Ted Kaczynski and Timothy McVeigh were terrorists you know.
President Sir, some hot air has escaped…
Obama: bloody Putin…
stick to the day job
Take my trusty .32 Remington sniper rifle with a hollow point round and I’ll have it down in no time
yes you will john, Yes you will :)
have your say