August 01, 2006
Belgian UAV Crashes And Burns

Two weeks after a Belgian UAV unit arrived in the Congo, one of their vehicles crashed and injured five people [via Vladimir Sedach]:

A drone flying over Kinshasa as part of EU efforts to keep Congo's historic elections safe has crashed, setting a house on fire and injuring five people, European military sources said.

It was a setback for the European Union military force, EUFOR, that was deployed in the central African state with great fanfare to protect civilians during Sunday's vote.

You can understand the FAA's concern.

Posted by jjwiseman at August 01, 2006 12:06 PM
Comments

This incidenct should caution people to read this previous post that is trying to "get all the help they can get" from the
military-industrial complex:

-----------------
I have been in UAV business since 1988. My company "UAV PRO" is experienced with both government and private clients in U.S. and overseas arenas (Iraq, Kuwait, Australia, England, Germany, Africa, Israel, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia). The company?s employees represent over 20 years of increasing technical and management responsibility in all facets of Unmanned Vehicles, including design, engineering, research and development, training and maintenance. UAV PRO is a company focused on providing top quality support and consultation services to both the military and civilian Unmanned Vehicle community.
BUT, The FAA is hurting the small uav business.
And small uav businesses like me.
We need help from the DOD and other agencies just to stay in business.

Greg T. Lumpkin
President
UAV PRO, Inc.
873 West Parade Ave.
Blackstone, VA 23824
540-379-4523 (Cell)
434-292-4914 (Office)
434-292-4085 (Fax)
www.uavpro.com


Posted by: Greg Lumpkin on July 3, 2006 08:39 AM

Posted by: K. Trout on August 2, 2006 12:15 PM

According to news reports today they blame the crash either on 'it got shot down' and then later on (in dutch) 'the software does not work below the equator'.

Either of which is a rather stupid reason to lose a drone.

Posted by: Peter Van Eynde on August 3, 2006 07:35 AM
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