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Drone crashes mount at civilian airports
Categories: Training / Learning to Fly a Trike, Safety, ATC & Communication, News
From The Washington Post: Posted by Hostman (ATC Specialist) 12/1/12
Opening Scene: .... He sent the unarmed MQ-9 Reaperdrone off without permission from the control tower. A minute later, he yanked the wrong lever at his console, killing the engine without realizing why.
As he tried to make an emergency landing, he forgot to put down the wheels. The $8.9 million aircraft belly-flopped on the runway, bounced and plunged into the tropical waters at the airport’s edge, according to a previously undisclosed Air Force accident investigation report.
The drone crashed at a civilian airport that serves a half-million passengers a year, most of them sun-seeking tourists. No one was hurt, but it was the second Reaper accident in five months — under eerily similar circumstances.
“I will be blunt here. I said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening again,’ ” an Air Force official at the scene told investigators afterward. He added: “You go, ‘How stupid are you?’ ”
The April wreck was the latest in a rash of U.S. military drone crashes at overseas civilian airports in the past two years. The accidents reinforce concerns about the risks of flying the robot aircraft outside war zones, including in the United States.
A review of thousands of pages of unclassified Air Force investigation reports, obtained by The Washington Post under public-records requests, shows that drones flying from civilian airports have been plagued by setbacks.
Among the problems repeatedly cited are pilot error, mechanical failure, software bugs in the “brains” of the aircraft and poor coordination with civilian air-traffic controllers.
On Jan. 14, 2011, a Predator drone crashed off the Horn of Africa while trying to return to an international airport next to a U.S. military base in Djibouti. It was the first known accident involving a Predator or Reaper drone near a civilian airport. Predators and Reapers can carry satellite-guided missiles and have become the Obama administration’s primary weapon against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
Since then, at least six more Predators and Reapers have crashed in the vicinity of civilian airports overseas, including other instances in which contractors were at the controls.
The mishaps have become more common at a time when the Pentagon and domestic law-enforcement agencies are pressing the Federal Aviation Administration to open U.S. civil airspace to surveillance drones.
The FAA permits drone flights only in rare cases, citing the risk of midair collisions. The Defense Department can fly Predators and Reapers on training and testing missions in restricted U.S. airspace near military bases.
The pressure to fly drones in the same skies as passenger planes will only increase as the war in Afghanistan winds down and the military and CIA redeploy their growing fleets of Predators and Reapers. Last year, the military began flying unarmed Reapers from a civilian airport in Ethiopia to spy in next-door Somalia.
Comments
Someone sent me this drone email below (kinda teasing me & knowing I'd have a "reactive" response)-- thought I'd share with all (my response first):
I'm sorry, but that's a stupid idea ;) Deliver BOOKS by tiny airplane drone to ?Kids? !!!??? I see them crashing into buildings (like the one that crashed into your bridge in the article), falling on people, chopping off eager kids fingers, at $2.99 per delivery they're going to have to be on a cheap budget (read: poor maintenance), forced to fly in bad weather (which is why commercial use is usually banned, because when $$ are on the line, people make stupid decisions of conditions to fly in. Private RCs are not as regulated therefore), what if my book is on the other side of the airport (you think these things are going to fly a long way around our airport??), etc, etc .....
and, most of all, we can deliver better books, faster and cheaper ELECTRONICALLY for gosh sakes!!!! ;)
Oh, wait, let's deliver BLOOD by air -- Oh yeah, because when $$ and human life are on the line, I really want the damn thing crashing into a building in swirly city winds and splattering me with someone else's body fluids !!!
What a stupid freaking idea!!!
Thanks for the email ;)
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I know how much you love drones XC:
Thought you might find this interesting. Not sure what the drone scene's like in the states, however, their visibility's just starting to pick up here....
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/push-for-liftoff-on-drone-deliveries-in-australia-20131014-2vixx.html
Wonder if we'll ever see the day of pilot-less cargo aircraft (don't think we're ready for passenger just yet)...?
Cheers....
GREAT response XC Triker. I could not agree more, especially with your note to NASA.....Kim
Well let me say my concerns are as follows .with all the latest technology and more sophisticated survalence cameras all over the place phone info gathering.it is now proven ill say it again proven they can turn on your cell camera listen without you turning on your phone and get this they can even take command of your car if new from the computer.drones in our skys.now i will say this iam law abiding if it is just.i believe that freedom should have dicipline.uncontrolled freedom can mean chaos.i dont tote around an ar 15
Or threaten others to get my way.i also believe in security and just uncorupted law enforcement
But i also believe that our founding fathers warned that delivering to much
Power to the government was a danger to the people
It intrusts .do we really know who and what power or ideas are behind all this.
And even if its not corrupt now what about an incumbant.who so ever forgets the past is deadicated to relive it (gen patton) who so ever sacrifices there freedoms for security deserves niether( ben franklin)
I envite anyone to read the doctrins of chief seattle
Well i guess i didnt really relate to the article.so i might add that as corperations using our airspace for drones delivering blood pizza .yes very bad idea.i have enough trouble understanding air space and jetways could you imagine having to duck through pizza 'book or blood airspace.
Poll: Who Wants Drones in their Airspace? Voice your opinion, see what others think!
Got these responses privately, but they're good to share (I think he got my post and Dave/White Eagles posts slightly mixed up... but same idea anyway):
No problems Dave. Well responded.
I hate the damn things. Australian regulations will be those adopted from the FAA. US regulators have farmed this out to the FAA and missed the privacy angle completely. We've got activists legally flying over other people's property, filming around farms looking for breaches of standards. It's just a whole bowl of wrong... At least in the US there's the commercial ban in place - it's something.
Cheers
ps - trying to erase the mental image of blood pizza oozing off the side of building....
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This one's a bit like the last - informational, not intended to provoke. Just wanting to keep you informed.
Drone Crash Florida July 2013
And a reasonable analysis of the Australian landscape... :-)
There was also an Australian ABC (4 Corners) program called "Rise of the machines". Have seen a version on you tube, but can't seem to relocate it ATM. It's well worthwhile
Cheers....
Ok, well, here's a little more food for thought (I agree on the privacy thing totally), but let's focus on delivery by drone:
I could drone on about why this is a bad idea .... ;)
Two Video responses for you ... watch them in order!
and then .... jump to 9:04
Sabotage by the dominoes guys perhaps?
It looks like there is some essentially annonymous posting going on- Which can be a good thing. AllTrikes voted to allow moderated annonymous posting, because there is no such thing as a stupid question (onoy the one you never asked / got answered).
Poll RE Anonymous Posting on AllTrikes
Anonymous Posting on AllTrikes, How to and Why, and safeguards.
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WhatchoutalkinaboutWillis?
The "Anonymous Triker" sent more to my email here. I say, let's get this all out in the open:
Amnisty International's view of drone attacks - informational only...
http://www.theage.com.au/world/us-drone-strikes-may-be-war-crimes-amnesty-report-claims-20131022-2vxx4.html
But I support their conclusions and Ed Snowdon's stance....
Cheers
[XC's note: I support Ed Snowden as well ... oh shit, the NSA is going to mark me now, you know what, I'm sure I was already on their list (as is Ken, as are most of us).... Close your eyes .... F&CK YOU NSA !!!! Is that clear enough for your anti-Democratic spying activities (sorry everyone else had to see that)]
This article starts off with THIS quote... "UAV hobbyist fights FAA fine
Unmanned aerial vehicle hobbyist Raphael Pirker is fighting a $10,000 fine levied against him by the Federal Aviation Administration in a case seen as a test of the burgeoning commercial UAV industry, which is awaiting rules by the FAA on flying the unmanned aircraft in U.S. airspace. "[UAVs] have an outstanding safety record and most of them are made small and light enough to be safe to use around people, unlike manned aircraft or other tools that drones are looking to replace," Pirker said"
I could only imagine the article went downhill from there ...