Before JLENS Fiasco, 5 People Were Killed in Kabul Runaway Blimp Accident

Last week, an unmanned surveillance blimp broke free from its mooring station at a Maryland Army base. Details on how its tethers failed have not been forthcoming, but the giant JLENS aircraft downed power lines and cut off electricity for some 30,000 people as it floated over Pennsylvania.

Luckily, the runaway blimp didn't cause any casualties, and was downed in the woods on Wednesday afternoon — albeit in several pieces, which at $175 million a pop, must have been a bummer for US Army officials. Unfortunately, a similar incident, on the other side of the globe in Kabul only a few days before, didn't end so well. It took the lives of five people.

A US military blimp used to hover over the Afghan capital as part of the so-called Persistent Threat Detection System. Along with other aircrafts in the area it provided 24-hour video surveillance and was able to zoom in on targeted locations. According to the Pentagon, it served as an effective deterrent, the Intercept reported.

"INS [insurgents] and LNs [local nationals] alike believe the blimp can see everything and will act differently when it's up," a 2012 Army "After Action Report" from Afghanistan read.

But on October 11, a British military Puma Mk2 helicopter with NATO members on board was preparing to land at NATO headquarters, where the blimp was moored. Eyewitnesses told BBC that the helicopter hit the blimp's tether, which then wrapped itself around the rotors.

As a result, five people were killed in the helicopter crash: two US service members, both from the Air Force, two British service members from the Royal Air Force and a French civilian contractor. Five more people were injured.

The British Defense Ministry was investigating the case, according to the BBC.

"Official military sources say only that somehow or other, during the course of that incident, the cable of the balloon was severed," the BBC's Andy Moore reported.

The blimp's deflation was met with applause by Afghan onlookers, used to thinking the surveillance giant was unassailable. One of them filmed it crashing to the ground and posted the video on Facebook.

Incidents involving runaway blimps are not a rare thing in Afghanistan. At least three Army blimps broke free only in 2013, in all cases due to helicopters cutting the tethers. The military tried to make the tethers more visible by placing flags, lights and infrared strobes at regular intervals on them, but the recent tragedy shows those efforts didn't help much.

The short documentary "The Above" by filmmaker Kirsten Johnson, made for the Intercept's Field of Vision project, features both the Kabul and the Maryland incidents.