U.S. Air Force Crashes Yet Another Drone

How many drones can you lose in a month? Apparently not enough: the US Air Force lost another drone today, a General Dynamics MQ-9 Reaper, this time on the Seychelles.

According to the US embassy in Mauritius: "a U.S. Air Force remote-piloted MQ-9 crashed at the Seychelles International Airport in Mahe. The MQ-9 was not armed and no injuries were reported."

The Reaper is a large unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a hunter-killer UAV that is designed to search for targets at high altitudes. It uses a powerful turboprop engine, instead of a jet like the one used in the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel that recently crashed on Iran.

(Reuters) - A U.S. drone aircraft crashed at Seychelles International Airport on Tuesday, the U.S. embassy in Mauritius said.

"A U.S. Air Force remote-piloted MQ-9 crashed at the Seychelles International Airport in Mahe. The MQ-9 was not armed and no injuries were reported," the embassy said in a statement.

The Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) confirmed the incident and said that the plane was on a "routine patrol" and had crashed because of mechanical failure.

The U.S. embassy did not comment on the plane's mission and said that the cause of the crash was unknown.

Iran announced on Dec. 4 it had downed a U.S. drone in the eastern part of the country, near Afghanistan. It has since shown the plane on television and said it is close to cracking its technological secrets.


Source: 13 December 2011 - By Jesus Diaz )(www.gizmodo.com) & Reuters News (Reporting by George Thande; Writing by Barry Malone)

Photo: U.S. Air Force General Dynamics MQ-9 Reaper (Photo by wikipedia)

(13.12.2011)