Courtesy Wikipedia 7 June 2013 (UTC) by Doug Coldwell
BRAGG CITY, Mo. (AP) — The mystery of the balloon that crash-landed into a southeast Missouri field has been solved — it was a Google Loon.
The Kennett Daily Dunklin Democrat reports that the balloon hovering at 70,000 feet lost its signal Thursday afternoon and ended up in a field near Bragg City, Missouri.
A program director for Google told Pemiscot County Deputy Anthony Dale that Google started the Loon project in New Zealand two years ago in an attempt to fill in gaps in Internet coverage. The balloon over Missouri had been in the air for 14 months.
Google says the balloon tends to develop steering issues after being in the air for so long, so the programmer sends a code so the device will descend, deploying a parachute.