Mystery drone near JFK airport: FBI seeks public's help in investigation

Discussion in 'Latest US & World News' started by Mandrake, Mar 5, 2013.

  1. Mandrake

    Mandrake New Member

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    A commercial pilot reported seeing a drone loitering near his aircraft as he was preparing to land on Monday. The FAA has tried to go to great lengths to make sure drones do not collide with piloted aircraft.

    By Anna Mulrine | Christian Science Monitor – 2 hrs 2 mins ago.. .
    http://news.yahoo.com/mystery-drone-near-jfk-airport-fbi-seeks-publics-003059603.html


    The news that a commercial pilot has reported seeing a drone loitering near his aircraft as he was preparing to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday raises some intriguing questions as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are poised to become increasingly common in America’s skies.

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has confirmed that it has launched an investigation of the incident, in which the Alitalia pilot reported that “he saw a small, unmanned or remote-controlled aircraft while on final approach to Runway 31 Right at John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 1:15 pm,” according to an agency statement.

    “The pilot did not take evasive action. The flight landed safely,” the FAA said.

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    The FAA goes to great lengths to make sure drones do not collide with piloted aircraft. Most drones used by law-enforcement agencies, for example, are not permitted by fly above 400 feet.

    President Obama signed a bill last year directing the FAA to further open US airspace to drones for both public and private use.

    The drone that was reportedly sighted on Monday was flying at 1,500 feet, according to the pilot and the FAA statement.

    Want your top political issues explained? Get customized DC Decoder updates.

    The New York field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a bulletin saying it is also investigating the incident and is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying and locating the unmanned aircraft and its operator on the ground.

    “The unmanned aircraft was described as black in color and no more than three feet wide with four propellers,” according to the FBI statement.

    Drones flown by law-enforcement agencies are often the same size. In addition to not permitting most of them to fly above 400 feet, the FAA generally mandates that the aircraft are not allowed to fly more than 15 minutes and cannot fly in greater than 15-knot winds. They also cannot be equipped with any weapons.

    Even when law-enforcement agencies do use drones, public protests over privacy concerns have spurred some municipalities and state legislatures to prohibit their use for covert surveillance. That leaves use for such things as floods, fire, and missing-person searches.

    This is not the first mysterious drone sighting on record in the United States. In 2007, for example, multiple protesters said they saw small robotic dragonflies hovering around their heads, The Washington Post reported. Universities across the country have Pentagon-funded labs that are developing such technologies.

    The Pentagon’s futuristic Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), for one, is putting computer chips into moths before they become flying adults, in an effort to hatch them into healthy “cyborg moths,” the Post pointed out.

    Mysteries aside, the number of permits that the FAA issued to organizations to fly UAVs has more than doubled, from 146 in 2009 to 313 in 2011. The bulk of the permits go to the US military.

    The growth in drones is big business for the corporations who build them. Some 50 companies are developing roughly 150 systems, according to The Wall Street Journal, ranging from miniature flying mechanical bugs to “Battlestar Galactica”-type hovering unmanned airplanes.

    The industry is expected to reach some $6 billion in US sales by 2016.

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    In my opinion, cops should keep their drones away from airport landing strips and runways. The need for people to take of and land safely outweighs their need to know what is taking off and landing.
     
  2. Jack Napier

    Jack Napier Banned

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  3. Mandrake

    Mandrake New Member

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    Fox wouldn't have it and CSM is not a blog, Jockko. Perhaps you've not wrapped your head around the fact that Yahoo is not an actual news service, but a gathering of news sources. The link goes back to Yahoo, but then one can go back further to the original source. It's like a Chinese smorgasboard of news.

    Of course not everything is there, just as you will never find Ostrich eggs at a Chinese smorgasboard.
     
  4. Jack Napier

    Jack Napier Banned

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    Have what?
     
  5. Mandrake

    Mandrake New Member

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    Anyway, I've never seen any sort of a drone as I am uninteresting. Still, I say that local yokel cops should keep their drones away from take offs and landings of commercial planes lest the Keystones endanger planeloads of passengers and neighborhoods near the airports....big duh, there. The FBI ought to arrest those stupid rental cops with their toy.
     
  6. Mandrake

    Mandrake New Member

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    What you just mentioned. Have you fogotten?

    HINT:

    BTW, the tea is in the cupboard. Socks in the laundrey make terrible tea.
     
  7. Jack Napier

    Jack Napier Banned

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    They did cover it, mandrake.

    The coverage is in my first post.

    In the actual link.

    See.

    I first indicate so, then I give a link.

    Are you following this?

    Can you click stuff?
     
  8. Mandrake

    Mandrake New Member

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    Sorry, wasn't bothering. I was having a bit of a giggle thinking about you making tea from your socks and drinking it.

    Sorry, all ears and such now.
     
  9. Jack Napier

    Jack Napier Banned

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  10. xAWACr

    xAWACr Member

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    Does anything ever happen that DOESN'T sound to you like 'they' are getting set ti murder Americans then?
     

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