Page 129 - Blimp News Today

With me now is the department of public safety thank you for being with me. it was a 6700-foot cable. what did you go through today? >> well, basically, we got notified by the 911 centers about this blimp drifting up to pennsylvania and at the time we didnt believe it was going to be a threat but just before 2:00 this afternoon our 911 system received hundreds of calls from the eastern end of our county. at that point, it was coming down pretty low and the cable was basically dragging across pow...

The next president isnt going to have to do that and the next president take control of the situation. >> give you the last word, mary. >> carly fiorina is a very impressive person but she hasnt been in the ebb and flow of politics. we have only elected three outsiders as president in our history. she has a long road ahead. this is just another vetting that she is going to have to get through tonight. >> mary, tammy, thank you both. we are less than 100 days away from the iowa caucus. the first ...

Helium? >> well, you know, if in fact it had headed towards a significantly populated area, this was going to be the key question that might have gone all the way to the white house. you have two armed f-16s trailing it and the faa trying to cheer out air space ahead of it. would you be prepared to bring this down using military force? would you shoot it down to get it on the ground as quickly and safely as possible if it was headed for a populated area. were told by the officials, the decision ...

Tether dragging the ground and then it would get hung up and the blimp would stop moving, then all of a sudden the tether would snap again and keep going. but it just kept floating by. but i did hear a loud pop, and they said that a couple of transformers popped in the area. but theres probably close to -- theyre saying on facebook that theres nearly 100,000 people without power in the bloomsberg, area. >> we got an estimate of 24,000, but that was several miles back in the track of this thing. ...

Central pennsylvania. the massive power outages and other problems primarily in columbia county where 30,000 lost electricity. traffic lights went out. government offices and schools were closed, including bloomsberg university. norad says its still not sure why the blimp came down. it does have an auto deflating system but it was not intentionally deflated and we are told it was not shot down, greta by those f-16s the craft that was designed to spot threats and became a fortunately is no longer...

Durable. it takes a lot to bring one down. they have had several that have been shot at and pierced and able to bring them down, repair them. this blimp by the way is filled with helium, not sure about the explosives. the norad people we talked to werent sure of the explosive capability. obviously, they say helium is flammable. but if they can slowly release the helium in the balloon and bring it down, they, again, emphasize that at this point they dont think it presents any hazard to anybody on...

Its active. thats the power of active management. all right. welcome back. bottom of the hour now. noras confirming the military blimp has detached from where it was teethered in the state of maryland. its floating free some 16,000 feet over pennsylvania. pennsylvania governors office issuing this statement, the governors office is in communication with the pennsylvania emergency management agency, the pennsylvania state police and the national guard. were closely monitoring the situation. wel...

So well see what happens. >> got to leave it there. >> thank you very much. >> will tonight decide who youre going to support in the presidential? >> this will be a big part of it. i hope they talk about some western issues, but its great to have everybody in colorado a state that believes the better days are ahead of us and which believes in the rocky mountain optimism which has made us so great. >> all right, well be watching. and before we go to break, want to update you on the developing s...

Want to talk about iran, russia, syria, all that in a moment but this military blimp that simply got untethered, floating around pennsylvania. this is billions of dollars invested in these blimps and some suggested this is a waste of money. have you looked into the program? >> we had general briefings on this so far. there hasnt been any blame but obviously there is clearly human error in this. this shouldnt happen under ordinary circumstances. >> remember when the gyro cop ter was floating arou...

Radar that can track missiles and aircraft for up to 340 miles away in any direction. it slipped from the moorings just before noon and began a slow drift north over pennsylvania. two f-16 fighter jets from a national guard station in new jersey scrambled to clear the way for commercial aircraft. >> its going down. >> the biggest worry, the 67-00 foot cable that kept the blimp tied down was dragging along the ground, taking out power lines and causing massive power outages. at one point, as many...