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A military surveillance blimp has broken free of its mooring in Maryland and is flying over Pennsylvania, NORAD says.

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A blimp associated with NORAD's surveillance of the East Coast has become untethered from is mooring in Maryland and it's now flying over Pennsylvania, according to NORAD spokesman Lt. Joe Mavrocki. Mavrocki said two F-16s scrambled from the New Jersey National Guard are tracking the blimp. It's unclear what the current danger is to the public or how the blimp will be brought back down. (www.cnn.com) Ещё...

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Purdue13
Purdue13 5
They know that helium isn't flammable, right?..........Right? Someone please tell me that they both ACTUALLY know that.
rbhallett
Roger Hallett 1
Maybe they missed that day at school.
FAwareM
FAwareM 3
I warned them not to name that blimp, "The Bergdahl."
AZAFVET
Wayne Fox 2
This was one of the most bizarre news stories, fit for Halloween, that I have ever seen. It looked like something from the "Ghost Busters" movie. The matter of the trailing tether line is the most important item in the story. When I was in the Air Force, planes that were launch ready and loaded for war, actually had a chaff system the dropped "rope" chaff. "Rope" chaff was dropped from under the B52 wing when they were approaching electric transmission lines in a metal shell that had a timer that when opened released a parachute that cause the shell to drift down slowly and then spring open deploying many meters long coiled aluminum spools that would then drift down across the electric lines causing them to "short out" in much the same way that the blimp's trailing tether line did. B52's were not allowed to fly in the US with this defensive weapon aboard. I used to load the cartridges containing these Rope" chaff packages and then during ORI's (operational readiness inspections' had to go to the alert pad to off load them along side of the nuclear weapons as they were being off loaded. So yes, this was a big. eerie event.

[This poster has been suspended.]

paul8626
Paul Smith 2
Not to mention that they are both light.
wwharris
Bill Harris 1
Today's episode of national crisis has apparently come to a close: http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/fighter-jets-track-military-blimp-drifting-over-pennsylvania/

"The blimp — which cannot be steered remotely — eventually deflated and settled back to Earth on its own, according to Miller. He said there was an auto-deflate device aboard, but it was not deliberately activated, and it is unclear why the craft went limp."
ChristianBase
Christian Base 2
Better order the military more Viagra.
joelwiley
joel wiley 2
Care to bet that the 'auto-deflate' signal is initiated on the ground and sent up the cable?
Another foresight-and-planning example.
paul8626
Paul Smith 1
locomoco
M.F. LaBoo 1
The latest reports are claiming LEOs shot holes in it until it settled. Meanwhile the military is saying the pressure differential between inside and outside is quite small (since there's no reason to do anything more than displace the air with helium) so a few bullet holes will have minimal effect. In that case I imagine the cops must've turned it into a colander to get it on the ground.
raleedy
ALLAN LEEDY 1
Shoot it down like a comon drone.
sullivanmanagementconsulting
John L. Sullivan 1
I just hope someone had enough forethought to keep security close-by for the eventual landing. You can bet a couple of embassy's had folks following.

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