



The runaway blimp has stopped moving after taking off from its home base of Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and flying more than 170 miles, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). At 4:25 p.m., NORAD reported that the airship was on the ground near Moreland Township, Pa., and a military recovery team was on the way to the scene.

The runaway blimp was one of two that NORAD launched over the past year to detect missiles, drones and rockets. From their perch at 10,000 feet above sea level, they are intended to look watch for threats from New York to North Carolina to Ohio.

The aerostats, as they are officially called, have been likened to two giant goldfish crackers hovering in the sky north of Baltimore. One of the helium-filled airships went airborne in late December, and the second aerostat got its wings in August. It was the most recently launched blimp that escaped its mooring, according to officials from Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG). The aerostat was anchored to a cement pad in the Edgewood area by a tether, which broke at 11:54 a.m. on Wednesday, APG officials said. By the afternoon, the blimp was "still aloft and moving toward Pennsylvania," APG officials reported.