U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has agreed to resuming testing of the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS), after investigations revealed the cause of last October’s incident.
By John Hamilton (https://www.dvidshub.net/image/568995) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
A spokesperson from NORAD said it was a combination of “design, human, and procedural issues” that caused one of the aerostats to float away untethered.
A pitot tube failure caused the blimp to snagged as winds picked up. A fin then wrapped itself around a lightning rod cable which later tore off the fin. The unstable aerostat coupled with strong winds caused the tether to break and unleashed the blimp from its mooring.