HUNT COUNTY, TEXAS – Strong winds untethered a U.S. Customs and Border Protection surveillance blimp and carried it 600 miles across Texas.
The blimp, named Argos, broke free at 3:15 p.m. Monday in South Padre Island, US Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations department said in a statement.
CBP lost contact with the 200-foot-long inflatable aircraft as two recreational vehicles were damaged, the statement said.
Argos was found Wednesday tangled in power lines near the city of Quinlan in Hunt County, approximately 30 miles east of Dallas, officials said.
No one was injured in South Padre Island or Hunt County.
It took more than two hours and a 60-ton crane to remove Argos from the wreckage, according to the New York Times.
CBP launched Argos in 2022. It was one of eight blimps CBP has along the Texas-Mexico border for use in surveilling illegal smuggling, fishing and immigration.
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