Navy drone crashes in Maryland, no injuries reported
Source: Alabama news site
A U.S. Navy done crashed into a marsh near Salisbury, Md. around noon Monday during a routine training flight from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, CNN is reporting.
The report says Navy personnel discovered the crash after sending a pilot to search for the aircraft after losing contact with the unmanned RQ-4A Global Hawk drone. Reuters reports that model of drone is 44 feet long and was a demonstrator model still in development.
The drone, worth $176 million, is able to fly without refueling for 30 hours at altitudes as high as 11 miles.
The Washington Post reports no one was injured during the crash and no property damage occurred.
Read more: http://blog.al.com/montgomery/2012/06/navy_drone_crashes_in_maryland.html#incart_river_default
No problem with pilotless drones flying around the USA, eh?
A $176 million dollar THUD.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Was the drone okay?
under search for "drone".....missed that.
it would seem they are using them in the wrong places.
Were they hoping to find out what all those Chesapeake waterman use for crab bait?
Seriously, I live right next to NAS Patuxent River (the source of the crashed UAV). On a clear day, there are all sorts of aircraft in the sky: P-3, F/A-18, C-40, V-22, dozens of helicopters, and, yes, UAVs (what the media call "drones."
Are you equally suspicious that the fighter aircraft are actually being flown to attack commercial airliners? How about the P-3, since it has surveillance gear, too. Do you suppose it's been spying on the American public since it was first launched -- in the early 1960s?
The aircraft are flown for training, maintenance check-flights, and just so pilots can get in flight-hours. They've been doing that for decades here before there was ever a "drone."
Look here for the restricted flight zone (that's been more or less the same since WWII):
http://vfrmap.com/?type=vfrc&lat=38.286&lon=-76.410&zoom=10
