Drones grounded in Central New York following crash in Lake Ontario

[Leviza]

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Officials at the 174th Attack Wing suspended all Reaper drone flights in Central New York Tuesday after one of the unmanned aircraft crashed into Lake Ontario about 12 miles from the eastern shore during a routine training flight.

A Coast Guard helicopter and search vessel were unable to recover the $4 million drone, which crashed about 1 p.m. Tuesday, and were forced to call off the search late in the afternoon because of bad weather, said Col. Greg Semmel, commander of the 174th Attack Wing of the Air National Guard.

Semmel said he did not know what caused the accident. A safety investigation board appointed by Air Force commanders based in Langley, Va., will investigate the incident. Semmel estimated the investigation could take a month or so to complete.

No decision has been made yet on when Reaper training flights will resume, Semmel said. He emphasized that the unmanned combat aircraft, which was introduced by manufacturer General Atomics in 2007, has a good safety record. Critics say the drones have a high rate of accidents.

A red X marks the spot where an unmanned Reaper drone crashed Tuesday into Lake Ontario, about 20 miles northeast of Oswego. The outlined areas on the map show some of the places where Reapers fly during unarmed training flights.Tim Knauss | tknauss@syracuse.com
The drone crashed into the lake about 20 miles northeast of the Port of Oswego, and about 12 miles from the eastern shore, Semmel said.

The 174th Attack Wing trains pilots and sensor operators to fly the MQ-9 Reaper, a 36-foot-long drone with a 66-foot wingspan that can be armed with Hellfire missiles or other armaments for combat missions.




Drone news conferenceCol. Greg Semmel, commander of the Air National Guard's 174th Attack Wing, briefs reporters Tuesday on the crash of a Reaper drone into Lake Ontario during a routine training exercise.


The Reaper that crashed Tuesday was unarmed and had been in the air about three hours when it went down in the lake, Semmel said. It was one of two drones that took off from Fort Drum, outside Watertown, during a training exercise. The other drone returned safely.

The Federal Aviation Administration is reviewing a request to fly Reapers out of Hancock Field north of Syracuse, but thus far has not granted it.

When the Reapers are unarmed, the 174th Attack Wing flies them across a wide swath of Upstate New York, from west of Rochester eastward to near Blue Mountain Lake, and from Syracuse north to the Massena area. The drones fly at 18,000 feet in airspace that is off limits to commercial aircraft. When the drones carry missiles, they are restricted to military air space in Northern New York, Semmel said.

The MQ-9 Reaper, which has a range of 1,878 miles, can carry a maxium of 602 gallons of fuel, but the drones typically are not fueled to full capacity for training flights, Semmel said. The aircraft weighs 4,900 pounds empty, and nearly twice that much when fully fueled, Semmel said.

Semmel estimated the cost of the lost Reaper at $4 million to $5 million. The U.S. Air Force reports that four Reapers cost $56.5 million -- or about $14 million each -- including the necessary ground control station and satellite link.

The 174th Attack Wing has nine Reapers, four of which are housed at Fort Drum, Semmel said.

Contact Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 315-470-3023.

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[Leviza]

Air National Guard fails to find MQ-9 Reaper drone in Lake Ontario

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon didn't have a plane in the sky Wednesday looking for the MQ-9 Reaper drone that crashed into Lake Ontario. It didn't have a boat in the water looking for the plane missing since Tuesday.

Instead, members of the Air National Guard's 174th Attack Wing searched the shoreline in the eastern end of Lake Ontario, north of Oswego, looking for any washed up pieces of the $14 million aircraft.

The airmen from Hancock Field in Mattydale returned to the base Wednesday without finding any evidence of the unarmed plane, which crashed into the lake at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, a spokesman said.

The 174th Attack Wing also asked Air Force officials in Washington, D.C., to provide aircraft to aid in the search and recovery effort. But by dusk Wednesday, it was unclear if and when that would happen.

Air National Guard officials offered few other details about efforts to recover the plane, the possible cause of the crash, or Air Force plans to send a team of investigators to Central New York.

"The 174th continues to compile information and data to assist in the safety
investigation," Maj. Sandy Stoquert said in a statement . "This investigation is a long and deliberate process, which can last in excess of a month."

Among other new information disclosed Wednesday:

How the Air National Guard confirmed the crash

The pilots who remotely operated the Reaper drone confirmed through an on-board camera that the aircraft entered Lake Ontario, said Eric Durr, speaking for the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs in Latham.

In addition, the plane's descent into the lake was tracked by other sensors. The MQ-9 typically operates in restricted air space between 18,000 and 22,000 feet.

Air National Guard officials say the plane entered the lake about 20 miles north of the Port of Oswego and about 12 miles from the eastern shore.

The plane has no beacon or signal to reveal its location

If the Reaper drone is still intact at the bottom of the lake, Air Force recovery teams will have to find it by sight. The plane is not equipped with any device that would send out a tracking signal, Durr said.

In addition, the MQ-9 Reaper does not have the type of "black box" found on commercial airlines that include a flight data recorder.

The ground base stations at Fort Drum and Hancock Field, however, have their own recorders that investigators can use to search for details of the last moments of the flight.

All MQ-9 Reaper drones stay grounded in CNY

The Air National Guard said it will keep its drones at Hancock Field and Fort Drum near Watertown grounded indefinitely.

"Local flying will remain suspended until the 174th deems a level of safety is
achieved before resuming flying operations," Stoquert said in a statement Wednesday.

Other federal agencies will not investigate

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will not be called in to help with the investigation because the accident involved a military plane. The Air Force will gather its own team of safety investigators, who will be sent to Central New York from other bases across the nation.

In the interim, the 174th Attack Wing has conducted preliminary interviews and worked to preserve evidence that will help in the investigation. The unit would not say Wednesday how many pilots and/or instructors were operating the Reaper drone when it crashed Tuesday.

Contact Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWeinerDC

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