Runaway Drone Near National Capitol Region Restricted Air Space May Cause Setbacks for Pentagon's Plans

On August 2, a military drone what was supposed to be remotely controlled lost contact with its operators. It wandered, or flew, into restricted airspace around the nation's capital, the military has revealed.

[caption id="attachment_7447" align="alignleft" width="340" caption="MB-8B Fire Scout Helicopter Drone"][/caption]

The drone was a helicopter style aircraft, an MQ-8B Fire Scout. It took off from Webster Field at the Patuxent River Test Facilities. It lost communications during a pre-programed flight.

The aircraft traveled about 23 miles when it entered National Capitol Region restricted air space. It never got closer than 40 miles to washington.

The Federal Aviation Administration and NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command) were both notified of the runaway drone. They were notified as operators were working to regain control. It took about 20 minutes to re-program the aircraft and to return it to Webster Field.

The aircraft returned to Webster Field safely without injuries or damage to the aircraft or vessel.

The news of the runaway drone was released during a popular industry conference dedicated to unmanned aircraft and robots.

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This conference was being help in Denver, Colorado. It comes at a time when supporters of drones are trying to convince the Federal Aviation Administration to loosen restrictions on operating unmanned aircraft in civil airspace.

That means that it could not have been timed worse for drone supporters. On Wednesday, Air Force official Gerald Sayer briefed attendees at the conference in Denver on the Defense Department's plans to have the military fly drones more freely in civilian airspace. There will be both supporters and protestors to this plan. After what happened with the runaway drone near the capitol, I'm sure that there will be people who don't want an onrush of drones in United States airspace.

Sayer warned, however, that a major incident involving an unmanned aircraft would have major repercussions on the Pentagon's efforts.

That means that the whole runaway drone incident might be enough to set plans back for a bit. It just depends on how the FAA takes it.

Either way, the Navy office in charge of the unmanned helicopters has suspended flights until its investigation into the incident is completed.

"We are in the final stages of the investigation and plan on briefing leadership next week," said Dunigan, the program manager. "We anticipate resuming flight operations in early September."