RT NewsAn American drone has malfunctioned and crashed into a guided missile cruiser off the coast of Southern California, causing two injuries, say officials. The incident happened while the vessel was testing a combat weapons system.
Lt. Lenaya Rotklein of the US Third Fleet told AP the two sailors injured in the crash were being treated for minor burns. The remotely-controlled craft reportedly veered out of control during an operation to test the USS Chancellorsville’s combat weapons system on Saturday afternoon. Rotklein said the drone was being used to test the ship’s radar.
The guided missile carrier is now heading back to the San Diego Naval Base, where officials will assess the extent of the damage. In response to the accident, the Navy says it is opening an investigation to examine the possible causes.
This is the second drone crash to occur this week in the US after an unmanned craft malfunctioned andcame down over Lake Ontario on Tuesday, prompting the suspension of all drone flights in the Central New York area.
The military was unable to say why the $4 million Reaper drone lost control and crashed, but reported there was no damage to civilian property or injuries.
Anti-drones activists have slammed the US government’s use of the unmanned craft on American soil, citing the increasing number of accidents.
“One of the notorious things about drones and Reapers is their high accident rate,” Ed Kinane a Syracuse-based peace activist told syracuse.com on Tuesday. “A general concern is that because the military is so in love with drones and the Reaper, it appears they have rushed these things into production.”
Bloomberg calculated in a 2012 survey that on average there were 9.31 accidents for every 100,000 hours of drone flight.
Nevertheless the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has resolved to push ahead with a plan to expand the use of drones in American airspace by 2015.
They say that this was a accident. If this was a accident then who is going to be held accountable for this accident. If any one else has a accident we have to pay for it instead of just saying that we are sorry we would be held responsible with bad consequences so I would like to know just who is going to be held responsible for this accident and what is going to be th penalty that they will be paying for their accident, just like I would if I had a accident…..I bet that if this drone hit the white house that someone would be held accountable.
I didnt know it was the USS Chancellorsville. She was in my battle group.
As for the crashing drones… Its not to hard to make them crash. There has been more crashes than they are reporting.
Parts “Made in China”?
No wonder Pakistan wants us out.
If anything good comes from drones in the US borders, it’s the HATRED OF DRONES (I have to admit being USAF I actually embraced the drones early on, before I saw HOW they were being used)
Sadly this one will need to FESTER first in my opinion.
Wait till it hits a house. Then a discussion about accountability. Which will morph into some other cluster of bs.
I would also work on getting the Personal number of the base commanders, or the airports and call their ass at 2:00 am when there’s noise.