Unmanned blimp wreaks havoc over Pennsylvania

Army aircraft causes power outages, class cancellations

MUNCY, PA.— An unmanned U.S. army surveillance blimp broke loose from its moorings in Maryland and floated over Pennsylvania for hours Wednesday, triggering blackouts across the countryside as it dragged its cable across power lines. Two U.S. fighter jets were scrambled to tail it.

The bulbous, 73-metre heliumfilled blimp finally came down near Muncy, a small town about 130 kilo- metres north of Harrisburg.

The North American Aerospace Defence Command in Colorado said the blimp detached from its station at the military’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland at 12:20 p.m. and drifted northward, climbing to an altitude of nearly 5,000 metres.

Two F-16s were scrambled from a U.S. National Guard base at Atlantic City, N.J., according to NORAD. At the Pentagon, Defence Secretary Ash Carter did not say what the two fighter jets might be asked to do or whether he considered the blimp to be a threat to aviation.

Witnesses reported seeing the blimp drifting in a sparsely populated area. Its tether was snapping power lines. The local electric utility, PPL, reported about 20,000 customers without power in the area, and Bloomsburg University cancelled classes because of the outage.

The blimp is the kind used in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to provide ground surveillance around U.S. bases and other sensitive sites. It is tethered to the ground when in use.

“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,” Carter said. “This happens in bad weather.”

As the blimp drifted away, Federal Aviation Administration officials worked with the military to ensure air traffic safety.

The aircraft is known as a Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defence Elevated Netted Sensor System and can be used as part of a missile defence system. It was not immediately clear how the blimp came loose.