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A military-surveillance blimp that broke free from its mooring Wednesday landed about four hours later in central Pennsylvania after causing power outages as its tether dragged on the ground, officials said.

The blimp, technically called an aerostat because it is meant to be tethered, became detached at an Army facility in Maryland around noon and was monitored by two F-16 fighter jets as it drifted, according to officials.

The airship is "contained and no longer moving" in Montour County, according to the office of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. Authorities were working to secure the blimp's equipment.

As of around 3:30 p.m. Eastern, the blimp was over a sparsely populated part of Montour County, said Tim Murphy, spokesman for the emergency-management agency in neighboring Columbia County. "Luckily at this point it's in a pretty remote area, with not that many people who could potentially be affected," he said.

About 30,000 utility customers in Pennsylvania lost electricity when the tether struck power lines, state officials said. Roughly 11,600 remained without power, according to utility PPL Corp.

The town of Bloomsburg fielded numerous calls from people who said they had spied the wayward blimp, a town official said.

The 243-foot blimp, with roughly 6,700 feet of tether attached, was at around 16,000 feet earlier in the afternoon, according to officials.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said earlier Wednesday that its officials were working with the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure air-traffic safety and with multiple agencies "to address the safe recovery of the aerostat."

"We are safely separating it from other air traffic," an FAA spokeswoman said earlier Wednesday afternoon.

The blimp, which broke free from Aberdeen Proving Ground northeast of Baltimore, is part of the military's Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System. The system is designed to provide protection from a range of threats, including "manned and unmanned aircraft, cruise missiles, and surface moving targets like swarming boats and tanks," NORAD said.

"Anyone who sees the aerostat is advised to contact 911 immediately; people are warned to keep a safe distance from the airship and tether as contact with them may present significant danger," Aberdeen Proving Ground officials said in a statement.

Doug Cameron contributed to this article.

Write to Scott Calvert at scott.calvert@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 28, 2015 17:25 ET (21:25 GMT)

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