WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A high-tech U.S. military blimp designed to detect a missile attack came loose yesterday and wreaked havoc as it floated from Maryland into Pennsylvania, dragging more than a mile of cable and knocking out power to thousands.
The U.S. military scrambled two armed F-16 fighter jets to keep watch as the massive blimp traveled into civilian airspace after coming untethered from its base at Aberdeen Proving Ground, a U.S. Army facility 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Baltimore.
Pentagon officials said they were unsure why the 242-foot-long blimp broke free at 12:20 p.m. (1620 GMT). Military officials wrestled for hours over the best way to safely bring it down, but eventually it deflated on its own.
The blimp, part of a $2.8 billion Army program, landed in Exchange, Pennsylvania, a community outside Bloomsburg, about 150 miles north of the Aberdeen Proving Ground.
