Drones Have Had at Least 85 Mishaps Which Resulted in Damage Over $1 Million Each

[tekisui]

Source: Wired

Report: U.S. Drone Goes Down Over Pakistan. Again.


A U.S. drone reportedly crashed in Pakistan on Sunday. The Associated Press calls it “a rare mishap for a program Washington has increasingly relied on to kill Taliban and al-Qaida militants.” But that’s not quite right; American unmanned aircraft go down all the time. They’ve even gone down before in Pakistan.

According to U.S. Air Force statistics, Predator and Reapers drones have suffered at least 85 “class A mishaps” — accidents which caused a million dollars’ worth of damage or more. Typically, one of these accidents takes place about 14 times for every 100,000 hours a Predator flies.

Drones are more glitch-prone than traditional planes. Communications with their remote pilots regularly cut out, forcing the robotic aircraft into automatic holding patterns. The unmanned planes don’t handle rain, snow, heavy clouds, or high winds particularly well; the Air Force typically grounds as many drone flights as it can if there’s bad weather. Landing the aircraft (especially under inclement conditions) is awfully tricky. That’s when almost all of the Reaper accidents have taken place.

With the drone war over Pakistan escalating dramatically in 2010 — 10 strikes in just the first three weeks of January, compared to four reported attacks in January 2009 — more accidents are bound to happen.

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/us-drone-goes-down-over-pakistan-again/#ixzz0deL2EgyH

[no limit]

1. Lol $85 million for the military. That kind of money doesn't even register on the radar.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. When A Drone Gets Killed, You Don't Need To Write A Letter To Its Parents

Actually I heard that line used about military robots, but same principle obviously.

[izquierdista]

3. And another positive

No drone pilot will be running in the 2044 Presidential election as a sitting U.S. senator. (Did you know McCain was a P.O.W.?)