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A U.S. Customs and Border Protection surveillance blimp crashed into a set of power lines after it was carried over 600 miles by unexpected strong winds in Texas on Monday.
The giant surveillance “blimp”, known as the “Eyes in the Sky”, and formerly known as a Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), is used by U.S. border control officials to monitor suspicious air and marine traffic along the southern border.
However, a spell of strong winds uprooted the giant balloon, which surveys from 10,000 feet, forcing it to break free from its tether in South Padre Island, Texas, and resulted in it becoming entangled in a small Texas town on Monday afternoon, stated U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
According to U.S. Customs, the damage caused to the aerostat by the winds resulted in contact being cut with border officials as it broke free. The South Padre blimp typically overlooks the Gulf of Mexico.
It was carried over 600 miles north before it plummeted from the sky down to the rural town of Quinlan, approximately 30 miles east of Dallas.
The unarmed and unmanned TARS stay lodged in one spot for the entirety of their service. Naturally, they tend to sway lightly in the breeze but are moored to the ground with “a special nylon fiber cable” and controlled using a powered winch, according to customs officials.
Local residents were stunned when they first saw the deflated vessel followed by custom officials showing up on their front lawns.
Resident Clay Hilton told WFAA: “OK – so yeah, it’s not just a tarp or anything, it’s something.”
“30 years I’ve been on this planet and I’ve never seen any kind of balloon that big,” he added.
According to National Weather Service meteorologist Ben Ellzey , maximum gusts were roughly 30 miles per hour on Monday – conditions that were marginally stronger than normal, he told The New York Times.
On Tuesday, U.S. Customs issued an update on the blimp, saying that it had been located by the Quinlan TX Fire and Rescue in Hunt County and that federal, state, and local officials were working on investigating the incident.
A video captured the blimp flailing freely in the wind, but locals didn’t manage to go unscathed from the incident.
One family told WFAA that the balloon struck their home on the way down, damaging their home’s roof. A woman told the outlet that “four or five record trucks” were spotted searching for the surveillance balloon.
It is unclear whether the family will be compensated for the damage.
The blimp was eventually found strung on a power line and officials have been working to get it down and restore the lines.
According to the federal agency in 2016, the U.S. government deployed eight blimps along the southern U.S. border from Yuma, Arizona, to Lajas, Puerto Rico.
The Independent contacted the U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment.
