MUNCY, Pa. (AP) – An official says the military is in the process of removing some 6,000 feet of tether from a surveillance blimp that broke loose from a military facility and came down in two pieces in the Pennsylvania countryside. U.S. Army Captain Matthew Villa says the tail section will be removed Thursday afternoon.
He says the main hull section of the blimp is in the process of deflating and could be taken away in the “next day or so.” When the blimp went down Wednesday, it had helium in the nose which had to be drained. Villa says the “easiest way possible” to do that was to shoot it. He says the state police fired about 100 shells at the white behemoth to get it to deflate.