Yes, there are still tethered balloons/blimps. A Cessna hit the cable of one and crashed a few weeks ago in Florida.
NTSB: Eustis pilot was in restricted air space before clipping blimp cable, crashing
Christine Dellert
Sentinel Staff Writer
May 16, 2007, 4:51 PM EDT
MIAMI -- Air traffic controllers tried to warn a Eustis pilot flying through the Keys last month that he was in restricted airspace before his plane crashed into a cable tethering a military blimp, killing the pilot and two others on board, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Minutes -- or seconds -- after the warning, Mark Chase, 56, flew his Cessna 182Q into a steel cable tethering the huge blimp in the area of Cudjoe Key.
Chase, 56, died in the April 20, nighttime crash along with his wife, Margaret, 53, and her cousin, Denise Darcey, 47, of Ashburn, Va. The three were on their way back to Leesburg International Airport following a day trip in Key West.
Relatives say a memorial service for all three will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Religious Society of Friends meeting house, 316 E. Marks St. in Orlando.
Authorities won't yet release the communications between Chase's single-engine plane and FAA traffic controllers in Miami. But the NTSB says witnesses reported the left wing "flying off" when the airplane struck the military blimp's cable at an altitude of about 4,000 feet. Rescuers found the destroyed craft near Cudjoe Key in about three or four feet of water, according to the report.
A camera mounted near the blimp recorded Chase's plane entering the restricted airspace around the blimp. The dirigible is part of an Air Force radar system used in the Keys to track drug traffickers.
"The video record showed the airplane's left wing striking the tether, and the airplane entering a spin, and descending seemingly uncontrolled, departing the camera's field of view," the report concludes.
The crash will likely remain under investigation for several more months.