Drunken spy satellite agency employee crashed drone on White House lawn
Off-duty NGA worker piloted friend’s Phantom drone into tree.
by Sean Gallagher
Ars Technica
Jan 27 2015, 4:15pm CST
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/01/no-need-for-speed-cable-industry-opposes-25mbps-broadband-definition/
The curious incident of the drone in the night-time has been made a bit
less mysterious today, as the Secret Service revealed new details into
their investigation—including a confession by the pilot himself.
According to the Secret Service, an unnamed employee of the National
Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) claimed responsibility for crashing
a remote-controlled quadrocopter into a tree on the grounds of the White
House.
The yet-unnamed employee reported the incident to his superiors at NGA.
He claimed to have been drinking at an apartment near the White House
when he decided early Monday morning to fly a friend’s new DJI Phantom
drone. He claimed that he then lost control of the drone. Soon after the
drone slipped unnoticed over the White House fence, it was spotted
flying low over the grounds before it crashed into a tree.
The White House has a radar system to detect incoming aerial threats,
but it did not detect the drone, which has the radar cross-section of a
large bird at best. According to The New York Times, the Secret Service
has been studying ways for the past few years to develop a defense
against small drones, which could conceivably carry small explosives or
other threats.
Formerly called the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the NGA’s image
analysts and cartographers take satellite and aerial imagery and sensor
data and turn it into intelligence materials, maps, and applications for
both the military and first responders, providing up-to-the-minute
information about everything from natural disasters to airfield landing
data. An NGA spokesperson said that the employee involved in the
incident did not work with drones for the agency.
--
=================================================
George Antunes Voice (713) 743-3923
Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927
Political Science Mail: antunes at uh dot edu
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3011
_______________________________________________
Medianews mailing list
[email protected]
http://etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews_etskywarn.net
