British Army drone 18ft from crashing into flying RAF Merlin

[Stratofreighter]

You don't want this one crashing into your main rotor, tail rotor -or windscreen...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... rcise.html

1:42PM GMT 11 Jan 2015

The British Army almost brought down a troop-carrying RAF helicopter when one of its own drones flew within 60ft of the giant aircraft, a report found.

The £15million Merlin vehicle and metre-long Desert Hawk surveillance drone should have been flying in their own restricted areas.

But they came close to crashing during a massive military training exercise, as crews blamed map-reading errors and a dispute over airspace for the near catastrophe.

The incident happened above a replica Afghan village north of Thetford, Norfolk, which has been purpose built in the 30,000-acre Stanford training area.

The Desert Hawk, which was charged with protecting the perimeter of a replica base, was operated by a ground team from 1 Artillery Brigade, while the huge troop- and supply-carrying RAF Merlin was piloted across the exercise area at just 100ft.

[Alpha Kilo One]

Conform visual krijgt bij drones natuurlijk een heel andere betekenis.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]