Following the spectacular crash of a commercial airship and a US Army surveillance aerostat late last year, questions remain over who will get stuck with the bill for the damage, which could be as low as $10 million or as high as $168 million.
The accident, which destroyed the third of four planned Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor aerostats, received little publicity for months.
US publication Inside the Army reported on the crash in April, after a March Government Accountability Office report covering the state of various defense acquisition programs alluded to a JLENS accident so severe that it threw the program’s schedule off track.
According to the Army, a commercial airship broke free from its mooring station during high winds on September 30, 2010, and crashed into a JLENS aerostat moored nearby.
“The crash and associated wind turbulence caused both the airship and aerostat to deflate and tear apart,” Army Space and Missile Defense Command spokesman Dan O’Boyle wrote in a May 13 statement to ITA that provides new details on the incident.