Posted on 03/05/2013 8:28:11 AM PST by Seizethecarp
A possible drone sighting near JFK Airport has led to a federal investigation after a pilot spotted the unknown flying object as he landed a commercial jet yesterday.
The Alitalia pilot was in his final approach into JFK over Brooklyn, New York, just after 1pm when he saw something hovering about 200 feet away.
Sources told the New York Post that the 'drone' was black in color, and had helicopter rotors on its corners.
The FAA said that all flights landed without incident, and the agency is currently investigating. The Post reported that the Joint Terrorism Task Force is also taking a look into the sighting.
In a statement to CNN yesterday, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said: 'The FAA is investigating a report... He saw a small, unmanned or remote-controlled aircraft while on final approach to Runway 31 Right.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This drone was apparently undetected on FAA radar or by DHS.
See my tag line and link for possible asymmetric attack vulnerability to drones exactly like the one spotted near JFK.
See FOX 25 video at bottom of story.
Additional links in the article:
“Pilot reports mystery black ‘drone’ at JFK”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/pilot_reports_mystery_black_drone_Tnp57ufZY3NToa47SuCIKL
“Pilot reports spotting ‘drone’ over Brooklyn”
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/04/us/new-york-drone-report/
So, the black-helicopter crowd will have a field day with this...
Government operating thousands of potentially armed unmanned aircraft to monitor/control the serfs=good.
Serf operating a glorified toy=terrorism.
About right?
my thoughts are that this was a private local goofing around with his new quad copter - which will prompt the federal ban on such devices in private hands - security dontchaknow
Islamists of various stripes have experimented with UAVs
A bird as small as a kestrel has destroyed a 747 when injested by a turbofan, and Canada Geese brought down Sully and an AWACS. Terrorists will certainly attempt to reverse engineer this kind of airframe destruction using GPS waypoint guides drones.
See my tagline.
I anticipate that airports will need active mini-UAV detection and countermeasures capability, especially near what I have identified as the “runway kill zone”.
Oh yes, I 'anticipate' the government will 'need' this and will soon outlaw serfs operating unmanned toys under the premise 'Islamists' (who they love in reality) might attack an aircraft.
The control freaks love to control, so no argument there.
So when some drugged up patsy purportedly has a 'bomb' (M-80?) on a radio controlled toy near an airport, our heroes will implement a buffer zone around all airports where serfs will not be allowed to operate RC planes or even Estes rockets.
Yes, I think you're right.
The black helicopter crowd was right along.
Nightstalkers: 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)
Robert Gibbs, the Obongo's mouthpiece, admitted that he was told to lie to the American people about the U.S. drone program. He did it and he laughed about it. What makes you think they are telling the truth about it now?
“...our heroes will implement a buffer zone around all airports where serfs will not be allowed to operate RC planes or even Estes rockets.”
Actually our overlords HAVE implemented a VIP buffer zone for POTUS and others deemed worthy of such protection called a NOTAM under which it is illegal to fly RC planes and rockets.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOTAM
The rest of us shlubs are left unprotected from terrorist drone attacks at airports and elsewhere.
RC hobbyists are NOT the problem. It is the newly miniaturized autopilots with precision autonomous GPS waypoint navigation that is the problem. These new, cheap mini-planes and copters can deliver kinetic energy or munitions to extremely vulnerable locations.
Just wait until our Al Qaeda friends, who always seem to attack just when the US government needs them to, start shooting down airliners with the thousands of shoulder launched SAM's we helped them liberate from Libya's stockpiles.
Probably a FreeFor drone. We should be getting our drones ready, too, and practicing with them, since OpFor is obviously feeling froggy.
FPV RC Helicopter Quadcopter Drone w/ HD Video Camera Controlled by Smartphone
Many RC planes are made of materials that would not reflect radar and may also be too small to be detected by radar. I am sure terrorists are aware of this and are looking at means of arming these drones.
This morning Glenn Beck reported that Rand Paul had just called in to his program saying that he had just received a letter from Eric Holder that he wanted to read on the air. He only would say that it is to do with the drone program and that if true it’s HUGE. They are in the process of verifying information but said that RP wants it to break on the Blaze...we’ll see.
I know GB can be alarmist and theatrical, but he is often right.
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