Second Blimp Grounded Amid Runaway Aerostat Recovery

The helium-filled surveillance blimp in Baltimore County has reportedly been taken down while military officials recover its mate, which flew away to Pennsylvania from Aberdeen Proving Ground Wednesday.

The runaway blimp traveled from the Edgewood area in Maryland to northeastern Pennsylvania, where it broke into two main pieces, one of which was in a difficult-to-access ravine, Army Captain Matthew Villa said at a press conference Thursday.

Since the part of the airship in the ravine was still filled with helium, Pennsylvania State Police fired 100 shots at the blimp to deflate it, according to the Associated Press.

The blimp’s tail reportedly broke off before it landed, approximately 0.25 mile from the ravine.

There is no chance the blimp, technically called an aerostat, will return to Aberdeen Thursday, and Villa said it may not be back in Maryland until next week.

Teams were working to secure the area, recover the airship fragments and gather its equipment, Villa said.

Harford County Executive Barry Glassman said he is concerned about his citizens’ safety and will meet with Army representatives “to determine if we need to alter our plans,” WJZ reported.

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Aberdeen’s runaway blimp was one of two patrolling the skies north of Baltimore.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) deployed two aerostats as part of a three-year test to watch for threats from New York to North Carolina to Ohio.

The blimp in the Edgewood area of Aberdeen Proving Ground was to feed information to NORAD that it received from its mate, a surveillance aerostat in Baltimore County. Defense officials said the system would protect the region from objects like missiles, ground targets, swarming boats and unmanned aircraft.

Roles were reversed Wednesday when the Edgewood-based aerostat broke free from its tether and two F-16 fighter jets kept an eye on it as it drifted north.

Upon breaking free, the helium-filled airship ascended from 6,600 feet to 16,000 feet, according to NORAD.

With the tether trailing from its body, the runaway blimp knocked out power to thousands and put citizens on alert in Maryland and Pennsylvania, where authorities warned people to stay away from the airship.

It landed in a “rugged, wooded area in northeast Pennsylvania,” NORAD reported.

Investigators are working to determine what caused the aerostat to break free from its tether.

Officials brought the blimp at Graces Quarters in Baltimore County to the ground as a precaution during the investigation, according to WJZ.

According to Defense News, an aerostat broke free in 2010 and crashed into another aerostat in North Carolina, causing $168 million in damage. That incident was attributed to bad weather.

Pictured, aerostat at Graces Quarters in Baltimore County. Photo Credit: C. Todd Lopez/U.S. Army. Also pictured, aerostat visible over shopping center in Abingdon, Md. Photo Credit: Elizabeth Janney/Patch.