Predator crash blamed on pilot error

Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 | 9:56 a.m.

Human error caused the crash of an unmanned Predator aircraft at a classified location in southwest Asia on Sept. 17, Air Force investigators have concluded.

The Predator was assigned to the 11th Reconnaissance Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base.

Air Combat Command in Langley, Va., released the accident report on Wednesday.

No one was killed or hurt in the crash of the Predator, which was destroyed on impact after flying into hazardous weather conditions.

The Air Force estimated the loss at $3.2 million.

The report said the pilot, who remotely controls the aircraft, unintentionally flew the Predator into a cloud that caused him to lose communication with the plane twice. As a result it failed to respond to the pilot's commands, indicating flight-control computers were disabled by the weather.

Last month the Pentagon readied an unspecified number of Predators based at Nellis for deployment to the U.S. Central Command, which oversees activities in the Middle East and southwest Asia.

Nearly half of the 60-plane RQ-1 Predator fleet has crashed or been shot down since the unmanned spy plane entered the skies in 1994, according to a report last month by CNN.

The most recent crash occurred Dec. 31 in Pakistan during a maintenance test flight.

Weather has also been a factor in previous Predator accidents, officials said.

The Predator succeeded as a spy plane in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was first used in Bosnia as a reconnaissance drone.

The medium-altitude, long-endurance aerial vehicle is normally operated from ground controls by a pilot and two sensor operators, according to the Air Force.

The craft's radar can work through smoke, clouds or haze, Air Force officials have said.

Each plane can be dismantled into six components and loaded into a container nicknamed "the coffin."

Pushed from the rear by a propeller, the Predator can fly about 90 mph and is effective at about 10,000 feet, according to the Air Force.