A free flying blimp of the US military damages power lines across Pennsylvania

A free flying blimp or aerostat of the United States defense forces was safely landed in Muncy, Pennsylvania . The blimp is used to detect the approaching enemy missiles and react faster. It flew for three hours with two F-16 fighter aircrafts monitoring it. The blimp is supposed to be anchored to its mooring but the reason for its free flight is not known yet.

This flying blimp has caused 18000 power outages as its tether threads damaged the power lines. Filled with Helium gas, the aerostat is supposed to fly at an altitude of 1000 feet and serve as an early warning of imminent attack of cruise missiles and drones.

Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) is the technical name of the blimp and it is 200ft-long.

Defense secretary Ash Carter said “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, this happens in bad weather.” News agencies reported that the defense agencies claim the aerostat was equipped with appropriate devices which are supposed to deflate the aerostat but were not malfunctioning.