Government Addresses Surveillance Blimp Seen Tumbling Over Texas

A surveillance balloon was yet again caught flying around Texas.

No, not like the Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down in 2023.

Yeah, that one.

No, this time Texas made the whoopsie.

Recent thunderstorms and wind storms that blasted through Texas caused quite a headache for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. As strong winds blew through South Padre Island, Texas. a surveillance blimp in the area broke free from its tethers.

These blimps are secured to the ground and can drift up to 15,000 feet, can be used to search areas of around 200 miles, and can be as heavy as 2,400 pounds.

The blimp was caught in the gust and began to uncontrollably travel through the air. The blimp traveled an astonishing 600 miles until it made its ultimate crash in Quinlan, a small Texas town.

That's when Chief Ryan Biggers of the South Hunt County Fire Rescue received a “weird” call from Border Patrol looking for some help with recovering a blimp.

“I was kind of unsure what they meant,” Chief Biggers admitted.

The blimp had crashed into power lines and trees. Photos from the scene show how the blimp looked just like a massive white tarp, even Chief Biggers was puzzled at first, “I couldn’t even tell it was a blimp,” he said.

After examining the scene it was determined that fire and rescue equipment wouldn't be capable of removing the blimp because of how tangled it was; that's when rotating towers were called in. One witness from the area described the amount of help needed to remove the blimp, "I wanna say 4 or 5 wrecker trucks came down looking for it," Geneva Larsey recalled.