Deserted Surveillance Balloon from Border Patrol Journeys 600 Miles Across Texas
A surveillance balloon operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) broke loose from its tether in South Padre Island, Texas, and journeyed approximately 600 miles north before crashing in Hunt County, east of Dallas, following a severe wind event earlier this week.
The CBP in Amarillo, Texas, reported that the incident occurred on March 3, around 3:15 p.m. CST, when the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) became untethered during what CBP’s Air and Marine Operations (AMO) termed a “severe wind event” on South Padre Island.
The National Weather Service noted that wind gusts in the South Padre Island region reached between 20 to 30 mph on Monday afternoon. The balloon then drifted northward across Texas, propelled by strong winds from a significant storm system moving through the area.
The National Weather Service indicated that a storm system passing through the Dallas area early Tuesday produced wind gusts exceeding 75 mph.
Related Stories
Although TARS constitutes less than 2% of the overall integrated radars utilized by the Air and Marine Operations Surveillance System, the eight TARS installations managed by AMO along the southern border from Arizona to Puerto Rico are responsible for identifying almost half of all suspicious targets detected by radar each year. Data from fiscal years 2014 to 2020 indicate that the system identified 68% of all suspected air smuggling flights near the southwest border from Mexico, as reported by the CBP.
CBP has committed to collaborating with federal, state, and local authorities to ascertain the causes of this incident and to implement preventative measures for the future.