Beta Beat – by Jordan Valinsky
A $4 million military drone plopped out of the sky into Lake Ontario and now nobody can find it. The National Guard reported that one of its flying robots plummeted into the eastern part of the lake around 1 p.m. yesterday, but had to give up searching for it because of bad weather.
The MQ-9 Reaper was on a practice mission over the military-controlled waters when it suddenly crashed about three hours into its session. The unarmed drone was being operated from the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Attack Wing in Syracuse. A Coast Guard vessel and helicopter were deployed to find it, but, uh, couldn’t.
It’s unclear what caused it to go down.
For now, other missions involving the Reapers have been cancelled with a board from the Air Force taking control of the investigation. At a press conference, Col. Greg Semmel explained the situation as best as he could:
“The mission was going as advertised, up to the point where we did lose control of the airplane,” he said, adding that there were no injuries presumably because the drone is unmanned and the lake is very cold this time of year.
So, if you see something, say something.
Follow Jordan Valinsky on Twitter or via RSS. jvalinsky@observer.com
Read more at http://betabeat.com/2013/11/the-military-could-use-your-help-looking-for-a-drone-it-lost-in-lake-ontario/#ixzz2kZz4IDeQ
Follow us: @betabeat on Twitter | betabeatNYO on Facebook
“The unarmed drone was being operated from the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Attack Wing in Syracuse.”
-national guard/attack wing
Anyone else have a problem with this?
“…and the lake is very cold this time of year.
So, if you see something, say something.”
-ahhhh hahahaha Did your little brother help you out with your speech? What a tard. —dAR da lake is cold YAY! Hey lady YAY! i can bring two friends! YAY! we’s neads hElp .
Maybe someone or something disrupted the signal and it just went down. This happens alot with these things.