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Dress for Success Luzerne County reopens after being closed due to water damage

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U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton, wrote to U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter seeking answers on what caused an Army surveillance blimp to break free from its mooring and drift free for more than four hours before crashing in Pennsylvania.Barletta Tuesday said he sent a letter to Carter on the &#8220;&#8216;runaway blimp&#8217; fiasco&#8221; that caused power outages and property damage during its &#8220;escape&#8221; on Oct. 28 from the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.The blimp, part of the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, dragged a more than mile-long steel cable tether and deflated, bringing it to the ground near Muncy. Two F-16 fighter jets, scrambled from the Atlantic City Air National Guard Base in New Jersey, tracked the blimp as it traveled through one of the busiest air quadrants in the nation, Barletta said.&#8220;While the news media reported the story with great amusement, I can report that people in my (11th Congressional District) viewed the incident with somewhat more serious attitudes,&#8221; Barletta wrote in his letter to Carter. &#8220;Residents began suffering power outages, which in itself was not a particularly noteworthy event, but they were somewhat surprised to learn of the culprit. Imagine their shock when they learned that the outages &#8211; which numbered in the tens of thousands &#8211; were not caused by a storm, accident, or mechanical failure, but by an unmanned blimp dragging a 6,700-foot tether across the countryside.&#8221;Barletta asked for answers to the following questions:&#8226; How exactly did a 243-foot-long, helium-filled blimp, roughly the size of a football field, get loose?&#8226; What is the status of any internal investigation?&#8226; What steps are being taken to ensure that something like this doesn&#8217;t happen again?&#8226; Why wasn&#8217;t there a system in place to ensure a controlled landing in a scenario such as we witnessed?&#8226; With such an enormous amount of public money expended, why did we rely on gravity and a few trees to bring such an expensive piece of equipment back to earth?Barletta advised residents who believe they have suffered damage as a result of the blimp mishap to call Army Claims Services at (301) 677-9076.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Jerry Lynottjlynott@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLNews</shirttailMeta></div>

Barletta writes to DOD Secretary Carter, seeking answers on runaway blimp