Blimp now a target for state police

MUNCY, Pa. - State police used shotguns Thursday to deflate a wayward surveillance blimp that broke loose in Maryland before coming down onto trees in the Pennsylvania countryside.

The military was gathering up 6,000 feet of tether, and the blimp's tail section was removed Thursday afternoon, said Army Capt. Matthew Villa. The much-larger hull was still deflating and will be removed in "the next day or so," he said Thursday afternoon.

When the blimp went down along a ravine, it still had helium in its nose that had to be drained. The "easiest way possible" to do so was to shoot it, Villa said, so troopers peppered the white blimp with about 100 shots.

The slow-moving, unmanned Army surveillance blimp broke loose from its mooring at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and then floated over Pennsylvania for hours Wednesday afternoon, causing electrical outages as its tether line hit power lines.

The 240-foot helium-filled blimp, which had two fighter jets on its tail, came down near Muncy, about 80 miles north of Harrisburg. No injuries were reported.

Very sensitive electronics onboard have been removed, Villa said.

Villa said it was unknown how the blimp broke loose, and an investigation was underway.