Posted on 05/17/2012 9:30:09 AM PDT by JohnKinAK
Aviation authorities are scratching their heads over a mysterious flying object in the skies above Colorado that almost caused a mid-air crash.
The object was sighted by a commercial jet pilot, who claimed to air traffic controllers that some kind of flying craft got too close for comfort on Monday.
In a transmission that appeared on LiveATC.net, the operator of the Cessna Citation 525 CJ1 says: 'A remote controlled aircraft, or what?
Trouble in the air: The object reportedly came dangerously close to the private jet, but it never appeared on radar
'Something just went by the other way ... About 20 to 30 seconds ago. It was like a large remote-controlled aircraft.'
A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, Mike Fergus, told 9News that it is working to get some answers, and that if the pilots story is true, such an object can be extremely dangerous.
Mr Fergus said: 'The threat is there from a collision standpoint. We'll do as much as we can here to try to track back what time it was. Suspects: The pilot suggested that the craft may have been a radio-controlled plane, like the one seen here
Suspects: The pilot suggested that the craft may have been a radio-controlled plane, like the one seen here
In an emailed statement to USA Today, the agency said: 'The FAA is investigating the incident and will try to positively identify the object the Citation pilot reported, where it came from and who was operating it.' A bird? Greg Feith also posed the idea that in the pilots haste, he may have mistaken it for a large bird
Mr Feith said that the object could have been either a military or police drone or a large radio-controlled craft - like the pilot suggested.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
How high do birds generally fly?
The article says the plane was 2800ft over the ground.
That settles it. I’m not flying to Denver any more. I’ll drive from now on.
I've seen raptors in flight well above 12,000 feet.
“Greg Feith also posed the idea that in the pilots haste, he may have mistaken it for a large bird”
Sure Greg.
Wow!
Thanks!
“Big Brother over Denver?”
I think UC Boulder is building UAVs. I’m sure they’re getting lots of funding from the FEDS. They’re fighting terrorism.
Migratory birds can easily reach theses heights. But an experienced pilot would have recognized a high flying bird easily; he’s seen them many times over. Not a bird he saw.
Probably some RC hobbyist playing with his toys.............
“Large.”
How large?
A UFO piloted by Bigfoot?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17805201
Iran has begun building a copy of the US surveillance drone it captured last year, after breaking its encryption codes, Iranian officials say.
“The Americans should be aware to what extent we have infiltrated the plane,” General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, military aerospace chief said.
The RQ-170 Sentinel was shown on Iranian state television last December.
Tehran says it was brought down using electronic warfare; Washington says it malfunctioned.
US Senator Joe Lieberman dismissed the claim that a copy was being made as “Iranian bluster” saying, “they’re on the defensive because of our economic sanctions against them”.
But Gen Hajizadeh said: “Our experts have full understanding of its components and programmes.”
He said that Iran had managed to hack the controls of the drone, thus enabling the Iranians to reverse-engineer the aircraft to make its own copy.
US officials have previously asked for the drone to be returned but Iran has refused, saying that the US should instead apologise for invading Iranian air space.
Washington has long said that Iran will find it hard to exploit any data and technology aboard it because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating over hostile territory.
Although analysts believe lessons could certainly be learnt about how the machine was put together, reverse-engineering has generally been seen by experts as beyond Iran’s capability.
I’m wondering if the Iranians jammed the drone until it ran out of fuel and landed on it’s own. That suggests interesting possibilities.
I was at Gene Coulon park in Renton about 20 years ago flying a kite. I use fishing line so it can go pretty much straight up. Anyway, the boeing plant and the renton airport are nearby. Lots of small aircraft landing and taking off.
The cops actually showed up and told me to reel it in.
Although somebody here may set me straight, I would have to assume that our drones use some type of SINCGARS series radios. In frequency hop mode, the radios jump frequencies 111 x second. Both radios are programmed with the same hopset and are synched, so one would need the specific set of frequencies and be synched with them to "jam" the drone. What's far more disturbing is the possibility that the signals/commands were being somehow hacked or compromised before they were transmitted.
I think strong enough broadband noise could be transmitted to locally blanket all frequencies ,so hopping wouldn’t matter.If the desired signal is buried in enough noise it won’t be recoverable.Not a new idea.
Iranians don’t have that capability.
The UAV glitched and went into a hold pattern (as it is programmed to do while waiting for the link to re-establish).
Eventually it ran out of fuel. It kept trimming during its flight and flat-landed.
Nothing complicated about it.
Lost link and other issues happen, especially with new technology.
The Iranians are third world and don’t have a jamming capability to do anything, and they certainly don’t have the reverse engineering capability to do anything with the wreckage.
The software is protected and any attempt to hack the software would result in all the threads coming undone. . .resulting in useless and random code, no help to anyone.
People are making their own recon drones these days and they scoff the notion of having to get FAA approval. Some are even on this site.
“Im wondering if the Iranians jammed the drone until it ran out of fuel and landed on its own. That suggests interesting possibilities.”
I’m sure that would/could have been possible. Or knock out its GPS system and wait until it came back down.
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