TUCSON, AZ (AP) -
The Air Force has cleared the way for a drug surveillance balloon to resume flights three months after one crashed in a residential area in southern Arizona.
The Arizona Daily Star reports the Tethered Aerostat Radar System site at Fort Huachuca has been shut down since early May, when a balloon-like craft broke free of its mooring on a windy day.
It fell apart over a neighborhood in Sierra Vista, about 75 miles southeast of Tucson.
Though the aerostat, used to detect cross-border smuggling, is housed on an Army post, it's part of a Homeland Security mission run by the Air Force.
On Friday, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson announced the aerostat would soon be airborne again, likely within a week.
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