The Border Report
April 25, 2006

The U.S. Border Patrol’s unmanned aerial vehicle crashed this morning but who was flying the plane?

According to KVOA-TV in Tucson, the drone plane crashed sometime last night ten miles east of Interstate 19 on Morning Star Ranch.

The drone plane is the most vaunted technology the agency has on the border. The program started in September 2005 after a cheaper Hunter drone was grounded last spring.

Now then, the agency cut a deal with San Diego-based General Aerodynamics last year for $14 million. The package deal included maintenance and a remote pilot for one fiscal year, Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2006.

Eight months later, someone crashed the plane but was it a new remote pilot or a GA pilot?

Then there’s the question of the crash rate for the Predator B.

Border Patrol and GA president Tom Cassidy refused to discuss what the drone’s accident rate was when asked last September.

Cassidy gave a hint, saying the Predator B has the same crash rate as the U.S. Air Force’s F-16 jet.

According to the U.S. Air Force Safety Center, the attack jet crashed 13 times in 337,315 flight hours in 2001. The number dropped considerably in 2004 when it crashed twice in 343,198 flight hours.

We still don’t know just how badly damaged the Predator was in this accident.