Joan Basnar looks over parts of the aerostat that came down early Monday afternoon near Kachina Trail. (Beatrice Richardson • Herald/Review) Click the pic to visit the article and see a slideshow
Posted on 05/10/2011 10:24:54 AM PDT by HiJinx
SIERRA VISTA — An Air Force aerostat fell to the ground Monday afternoon, scattering across several Sierra Vista neighborhoods debris ranging from small parts to major pieces of the device.
Joan Basnar looks over parts of the aerostat that came down early Monday afternoon near Kachina Trail. (Beatrice Richardson • Herald/Review) Click the pic to visit the article and see a slideshow
“Boom, boom, thud.”
Those were the noises Lee and Joan Basnar heard shortly after 1 p.m. Monday.
The two booms — one loud and the other more muted — sounded as if it happened directly over their home on Kachina Drive and, the following thud was quieter and resonated off the ground in an area off to the side of their backyard.
Looking out one of their back windows, Joan Basnar said after the thud, she saw a small dust devil-like cloud rising from an adjacent vacant lot.
Going out, Lee Basnar said he came upon a small collection of debris, some plastic, some metal and wiring.
Taking first a Herald/Review photographer and later a reporter to where the debris was located — it appeared to have dug a hole about four inches deep with most of the debris on the outer rims of the hole — and apparently the equipment was part of a system to quickly deflate the aerostat as a red sign with white lettering on it read: “Rapid Descent Device.”
A toggle switch on part of the panel was in the “armed” position.
Before going out back, the Basnars said they looked out their front windows and saw material coming down.
“There was lots of streaming debris,” Lee Basnar said.
Pointing to the northeast, he said he could tell much of what fell came down some distance from his home.
The aerostat is a familiar sight to the them, for between three-quarters of a mile and a mile away, they can see “the cone” on the Air Force site on Fort Huachuca where, when the aerostat is not flying, it is connected to the ground.
A pilot, Lee said he thought the winds were a little strong for the aerostat to be up, but not knowing its go’s and no-goes for flight conditions, he said he didn’t know whether Monday’s operations were within standards.
According to the National Weather Service Forecast Center in Tucson, from 12:55 p.m. to 1:55 p.m., the time parameters of the incident, winds were 23 to 28 mph, gusting to 47 mph.
For the man who flew as a bush pilot in Alaska, winds can vary at different altitudes and, sometimes at higher ones, they are stronger, but not always, he said.
From the Basnar’s home, a straight-line estimate — northeast — to where the majority of the debris fell is about a mile, although other amounts either fell farther away or closer, with large pieces falling on roads and other smaller ones becoming tangled in electrical lines.
What appears to have been a major part of the aerostat, also called a tethered balloon, came down in Bob Lewis’ backyard.
The smell of diesel fuel permeated the air outside his Windmill Court neighborhood.
Lewis wasn’t home when some of the aerostat came down.
When he arrived, white, black and silver fabric was piled up in his backyard, fortunately shrouding some of the aerostat’s sensitive and classified equipment from the eyes of onlookers.
Lewis said the only building damage he initially saw was a “cracked patio window.”
Even though no windows were open and the home cooling system was off, he said he could smell the diesel fumes inside the house.
A man stood on the roof of a house about a block away taking photos of the debris scattered around the area.
A long piece of the tether line snaked across portions of three yards and part of the line cracked a tree branch in Lewis’ side yard.
Neighbor Sandra Vetter, who observed the comings and goings of fire, law enforcement and other federal, county and city agencies, had a small chunk of stucco knocked off her Windmill Court home.
However, the tether struck the right side of a car in her driveway, engraving a black colored dent from the rear to the right rear door. The tether which includes special wiring inside is covered in a black rubber-like material.
That no one was injured was fortunate, she said.
Both Vetter and Lewis said officials have said all damages will be repaired at government expense. Important to Lewis was the promise that environmental cleanups would be covered, too, as diesel fuel spilled in his backyard as well.
Another home next to Vetter’s had some concrete roof tiles damaged over the garage.
“They already told me they will take care of everything,” Lewis said.
One of the first ones who perhaps captured the aerostat collapsing into itself was Terry Erickson, who lives not far from the PDS Golf Course’s first tee.
Watching the incident unfold as he was driving home, Erickson said as soon as he got to his house he grabbed a camera and shot a couple of photos as the aerostat fell.
It was “something different to see,” he said.
Military officials said Monday’s aerostat incident in which the specialized tethered balloon deflated, spreading debris over a wide are of Sierra Vista is being investigated, with the Air Force being the lead, the fort’s pubic affairs officer said.
Thankfully, none of the mission or support gear - the big heavy stuff - hit anyone. The property damage we know of so far is fairly minor; much like what we get from our local wind storms.
Oh, the hugh manateee!...................
I have a friend in Sierra Vista; I’ll have to ask her if any debris fell in her neighborhood.
Worked as advertised.
Air Force framistat.
Ostensibly for weather, but it also has the ability to detect cross-border air traffic.
Not saying that’s part of its mission, but, you know...
Ping!
Looks more like swamp gas.
Training and testing. Ft. Huachucha is the land of the spooks.
I wonder if this was the result of hostile fire?
When asked what caused the fall, the aerostat’s manufacturer Viagra Aerospace declined to comment.
Initial reports say that the tether broke.
That first picture makes it look like the bag started to deflate before anything happened to the tether - and there was damage to a vehicle from the tether where it came to ground...
Hmmm...
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