Killer Blimp over Pennsylvania!

[LSLGuy]

Fnord. Odd that **What Exit? **posted #99 and I’m posting #101. And #100 is simply not there. Fnord.

[dasmoocher]

The Washington Post had this update today:

The stupidly simple reason why the military lost control of a giant surveillance blimp

Last fall the military lost control of an unmanned surveillance blimp: The craft unmoored itself from a base in Maryland and drifted 100 miles over Pennsylvania, leaving destruction in its wake. A trailing tether downed powerlines and cut off electricity for tens of thousands of people; 911 lines were overwhelmed; college classes were canceled; and fighter jets were even deployed to track the blimp.

But all of that chaos could have been avoided if someone had done the sort of basic maintenance that keeps smoke detectors working: No one loaded the batteries needed to power an automatic-deflation device on the blimp, according to the Los Angeles Times.

…

However, the craft was equipped with a device that should have deflated it and returned it to the ground within two miles – which would have effectively contained much of the damage and prevented a flood of incredulous headlines. But no one had installed the batteries that should have served as backup power to the system in this kind of scenario.

“The lack of batteries prevented the automatic rapid deflation device from deploying,” Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command, confirmed to the Times.

So the true moral of the story might be this: Always have a backup – especially when you’re running a program whose malfunction could look like an embarrassing metaphor for bloated military spending running wild.

[nearwildheaven]

:smack:

[davidm]

Don’t they have some sort of maintenance schedule for these kinds of things, some sort of checklist?

[ul]
[li]Check the pressure once a week.[/li][li]Change, or at least test, the batteries once a month.[/li][li]Do cable maintenance twice a year.[/li][/ul]In fact, I’d think there would be some sort of automated system that alerts them to failing batteries. Such a thing exists in every damned home smoke detector on the market, so how hard can it be?

[Count_Blucher]

@davidm

Such a thing exists in every damned home smoke detector on the market, so how hard can it be?

“General Crawford…? Can you explain just Why the army needs to spend $19.95 on batteries for blimps each year?”
"Congressman Bloviator, those batteries… "
“General, Do Not blimps rise due to lighter than air gases…?”
“Yes, Congressman Bloviator, but…”
“So you Admit this line item is wasteful and unnecessary?”
“No, Congressman Bloviator, those batteries are actually essen…”
“Essential for What, General? The remote in the rec room? We’re here to keep spending and taxes down, General. Appropriation refused.”
Gavel-slap Gavel-slap

[snfaulkner]

@Count_Blucher

“General Crawford…? Can you explain just Why the army needs to spend $19.95 on batteries for blimps each year?”
"Congressman Bloviator, those batteries… "
“General, Do Not blimps rise due to lighter than air gases…?”
“Yes, Congressman Bloviator, but…”
“So you Admit this line item is wasteful and unnecessary?”
“No, Congressman Bloviator, those batteries are actually essen…”
“Essential for What, General? The remote in the rec room? We’re here to keep spending and taxes down, General. Appropriation refused.”
Gavel-slap Gavel-slap

That Congressman Bloviator is such a clown. Those clowns in congress did it again. What a bunch of clowns.

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

^^ How’s he keep up with the news like that?

[the_diego]

They can’t use those specially fitted C-130’s used to recover parachuting spacecraft, or individuals/items on the ground tethered to a balloon?