[unkus]

Perhaps it would’ve been more prudent to program it to self-destruct in the event of lost communications.

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My thoughts, too.

[USNBandit]

If it has the software to find a place to land, why not software to go back to it's origin, or go to a preprogrammed set of coordinates and auger in with a reasonable amount of fuel.

This goes back to the "Who needs pilots anymore" argument. A military pilot would have thought of this kind of stuff.