Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Blue screen of death smashed 4,5 tonnes UAV into residential area

A mix-up between fuel and camera controls caused a 4.5-tonne uncrewed aircraft to smash into a residential area near the town of Nogales, Arizona. No one was hurt but the incident raises serious questions about the safety of flying uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in civilian airspace and could hamper plans to use them more widely.

On 25 April 2006, a Predator B surveillance UAV belonging to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was patrolling the Mexican border when the ground pilot's radio-control console froze, prompting him to switch to a back-up. Last week the US National Transportation Safety Board released a damning report into how the change caused the plane to crash.

Now comes the best:

When the pilot switched consoles, he failed to notice the fuel supply difference, which caused the engine to cut out.

BAD HARDWARE comment: Seems we put our national security level to the highest ... deeps. Yesterday one military airplane dropped the bomb into the East coast beach. Might seem interesting option to make a bet during its approach will the bomb explode ... or not.

Anyway, seems that everything is this time quite ready for forthcoming Iran invasion. We must not make yet another screw up ( remember choppers collisions debacle the last try).

Here is the latest on airport security:

WASHINGTON - Abandoning its secrecy claims, NASA promised Congress on Wednesday that it will reveal results of an unprecedented federal aviation survey which found that aircraft near collisions, runway interference and other safety problems occur far more often than previously recognized.


Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?