Story highlights Two F-16s scrambled from the New Jersey National Guard are tracking a loose NORAD blimp

The aerostat, which is roughly 243 feet long, came loose from its tethering in Maryland

(CNN) Some 40 personnel from the home base of the military blimp that broke loose Wednesday are now at the site where it landed, a U.S. military official told CNN.

There is an on-scene commander and also an investigating officer for the Pentagon, and they hope to remove the wreckage by the end of the day.

The blimp, associated with NORAD's surveillance of the East Coast, became untethered from its mooring station at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

The blimp is in two major pieces, split between the tail and the rest of the aerostat, according to Army Capt. Matthew Villa.

He said that officials noticed there was still helium in the nose on Thursday morning, so they decided to shoot it with a shot gun, which Pennsylvania State Police did. It was shot after it crash-landed in order to deflate it.

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