Sheriff's Office conducted investigation after man threatened to shoot down blimp at US Open

The Washington County Sheriff's Office says they do not suspect foul play in the crash of a blimp near the US Open at Erin Hills.

This is despite the fact that a man admitted that he threatened to shoot it down.

The crash happened last Thursday, injuring the blimp's pilot who was airlifted to Froedtert Hospital with serious injuries.

Investigators are still piecing together what caused the blimp to crash but a local farmer was a suspect.

That farmer did not want to go on camera but said that he was upset about the blimp taking off and landing near his property so he told deputies he would shoot it down.

"He had a complaint of it disturbing his cattle." Washington County Sheriff Dale Schmidt describes the call his department took a few hours before the blimp crash last week.

"He sort of asked the sarcastic question of whether he could shoot the thing down or not, something to that effect, and the dispatcher, of course, responded no."

A few hours after that man asked about shooting the blimp down, it crashed less than a half mile from his property.

"Detectives and later the FBI assisted us in locating the person who had called in that complaint."

Schmidt says that man had a solid alibi and investigators were able to quickly figure out that he didn't cause the blimp to crash. 

The man said that detectives checked the US Open's ticket system to verify he went through the gates well before the crash. 

The blimp company CEO says the blimp crashed in such an unusual way that many people across the industry don't understand how it happened and says every possibility should be looked at.

The National Transportation Safety Board still has what's left of the blimp as it does its investigation.