(KRON) UPDATE 1:20PM
MUNCY, Pa. (AP) – The latest on an unmanned Army surveillance blimp that broke loose from its ground tether at a military base in Maryland on Wednesday and drifted over central Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania state police say a military blimp that broke loose in Maryland and drifted over Pennsylvania is on the ground and secure.
Bob Reese, a state police spokesman in Montoursville, says it came down in the area of Muncy, near Williamsport.
The blimp caused about 18,000 power outages. Columbia County chief clerk Gail Kipp says the blimp dragged its tether line, which took out power lines and caused widespread outages.
The unmanned Army surveillance blimp broke loose from its ground tether at a military base and drifted over central Pennsylvania as fighter jets tracked it. The aircraft is known as a Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System and can be used as part of a missile defense system.
It’s not clear how the blimp came loose.
UPDATE 1:10PM
According to CNN the military blimp has landed in Columbia County, Pennsylvania.
UPDATE 12:28PM
WASHINGTON (AP) – An unmanned Army surveillance blimp broke loose from its ground tether at a military base in Maryland on Wednesday and drifted over central Pennsylvania as two Air Force fighter jets tracked it. The blimp’s long tether snapped power lines, causing outages.
Pentagon officials said the blimp was descending.
RELATED COVERAGE: KRON4’S SISTER STATION WHTMThe North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado said the blimp detached from its station at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, at about 12:20 p.m., and initially traveled north at an altitude of about 16,000 feet.
State 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, a sparsely area north of Harrisburg. Its tether was snapping power lines.
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 canceled classes, citing a “widespread power outage.”
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.
“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,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a brief exchange with reporters at the Pentagon. “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.
FAA officials were working with the military to ensure air traffic safety in the area.
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.wb
It was not immediately clear how the blimp came loose.
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Associated Press writers Kristen De Groot and AP photo stringer Jimmy May in Pennsylvania contributed to this report.
(CNN)A blimp associated with NORAD’s surveillance of the East Coast has become untethered from its mooring in Maryland and it’s now flying over Pennsylvania, according to NORAD spokesman Lt. Joe Mavrocki.
Two F-16s scrambled from the New Jersey National Guard are tracking the JLENS aerostat, a Pentagon official said, after the aircraft came loose from its mooring station in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, just outside of Washington.
JLENS, which is short for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, is a system of two aerostats, or tethered airships, that float 10,000 feet in the air. The helium-filled aerostats, each nearly as long as a football field, carry powerful radars that can protect a territory roughly the size of Texas from airborne threats.
The JLENS is believed to be very low to the ground in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, a U.S. military official told CNN.
The military is reaching out to the State Police and National Guard to secure the site where it comes down.
Shortly after news broke about the blimp, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said state officials were “closely monitoring” the situation.
“The Governor’s Office is in communication with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, the Pennsylvania State Police, the National Guard, and the appropriate authorities with the federal government,” the statement said.
The military is planning to scramble helicopters that can land next to the JLENS when it comes down in order to secure it.
The official says the JLENS has remote deflation technology, but it may not be working. They provide 360 degrees of defensive radar coverage and can detect and track objects like missiles and manned and unmanned aircraft from up to 340 miles away.
JLENS can also remain aloft and operational for up to 30 days at a time.