Latvian drone wrests control from human overlords and shuts down entire nation's skies
- Reference: 1588598949
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/04/latvian_drone_breaks_free/
- Source link:
Local news website Apollo [1]reported over the weekend that a test flight went disastrously wrong when a Latvian drone firm lost control of one of their remote-controlled aircraft.
The “experimental vertical takeoff and landing aircraft” was reportedly being test-flown when ground personnel lost communication with it, reported Apollo. The news site added that UAVFactory “also supplies drones for the needs of the Latvian army.”
Latvian news agency LETA [2]added : “During a controlled test flight on Saturday, communication with an unmanned aerial vehicle owned by drone manufacturer SIA UAVFactory was lost. The company's representative, Jevgenijs Sinikovs, confirmed that the aircraft can fly for up to 90 hours, and added that its gliding in orbit depends on the wind.”
It is thought by local sources that the drone was last seen flying at an altitude of 200 metres, or 600ft in aviation-standard units. The craft itself measures 3.5m x 5.5m, weighs 26kg and has a top speed of 70kph. Helpfully, it also took off with fuel for about 90 hours of flying time – meaning Latvian airspace could be closed for most of this week unless the rogue drone is found.
Official Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs), published by Latvia’s aviation authorities, stated that all flights below 19,500ft across the whole of Latvia were “suspended” except for visual flight rules journeys where pilots rely on looking out of the windows instead of following instruments.
“IFR FLIGHTS SUSPENDED BELOW FL195 IN RIGA FIR DUE TO UNCONTROLLED AND LOST DRONE IN THE AREA,” said one of the two relevant NOTAMs. The Riga flight information region (FIR) is the air traffic control unit covering the whole country.
Flights appeared to have restarted from Riga airport when The Register checked a popular plane-tracking website, though with most of Europe’s aviation industry having been shut down thanks to coronavirus lockdowns, the closure will affect few scheduled flights anyway.
“Residents who notice a 5.5-meter-wide and 3.5-meter-long unmanned aerial vehicle are asked to contact the Aviation Search and Rescue Coordination Center immediately at 29 337 238 or 65 703 988,” concluded Apollo. ®
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[1] https://www.apollo.lv/6964378/noskaidrotas-jaunas-detalas-par-pazuduso-dronu
[2] https://www.leta.lv/eng/home/important/157BDF14-C483-46FB-A2A5-BB89863B4A2F/
[3] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8553/legacy-modernization-finding-your-way-with-low-code?td=wptl1936
Re: Phone Gatwick
Harsh....what did the people of Latvia ever do to you?
Solid SSH Keys
I'm betting the Russians have a new drone to study after figuring out the drone had a powerful password on their radio link of 1234 or some such.
"No need for security; it's not in the field yet..."
It just wouldn't surprise me.
Might help:
https://imgur.com/mcKe1k5
/anon drone enthusiast
ROTM
IFOWON Skynet robot overlords.
"During a controlled test flight ..."
^ some might disagree with that description.
Re: "During a controlled test flight ..."
Well, it did have somebody twiddling knobs and such. Just because the on-board system decided that it was a great time to take a holiday shouldn't be seen in a bad light.
Rise of the machines: we're off to the beach. You fleshies can keep working.
I take it Latvia don't own any RADAR then?
I mean it's not small, it's the size of a light aircraft.
@Alister.
I was thinking the same ting. Perhaps it has really good stealth capabilities, if a NATO member can't find a continuously flying plane in ninety hours, their membership may need a rethink.
Wot no AWACS?
For that matter, don't they just need to call up the nearest NATO AWACS to find out where it is? Don't NATO keep a very close eye on everything flying in the European Theatre becuase of the Bears?
Or did they sell them all off / scrap them all?
Re: Wot no AWACS?
"Don't NATO keep a very close eye on everything flying "
Maybe NATO run their surveillance on similar principles to JORN in Australia - 9 to 5 only, no cover on national holidays, etc unless there's a pre-arranged war on and pre-approved overtime for the necessary personnel.
600ft is too low for primary air traffic service radars. Radar installations are placed on high ground and look upwards, there is too much "noise" near the ground for them to be any use. They are intended to assist in deconflicting and dispatching search and rescue for aircraft, and laws generally prohibit aircraft flying below 500ft other than during take off or landing. The radar at the local airport I fly from (or did when such things were possible) can't see aircraft below about 1400ft. As such a drone flying at 600ft is literally under the radar.
Also, civilian air traffic control radars don't really detect the airplanes themselves; they detect the radar transponders installed in airplanes. If the drone doesn't have one (or it was turned off for the test flight), then air traffic control radars aren't going to be much use even if the drone flies through an area where there is ostensibly radar coverage.
RADAR
Airports run two types of RADAR. Primary RADAR is the traditional bounce EM radiation off the metal bits and detect the reflection. Secondary RADAR (not strictly RADAR) detects a radio signal reply generated by aircraft systems. Both are useful and fill slightly different functions.
The particular advantage of secondary RADAR is that the squawk will identify the individual aircraft.
But why are you all talking about civilian airport RADAR?
Surely Latvia has some military RADAR which does work under 600ft AGL
A very light aircraft indeed of 26kg in aviation-standard units or not.
You would think...
that knowing where the bloody thing is is a fundamental requirement of this sort of device...
Phone Gatwick
The people at Gatwick don't have much to do at the moment and they're expert drone hunters so why not send them over to help? In fact, feel free to keep them!