Monday, June 11, 2012

Unmanned Naval Airplane Crashes on Eastern Shore

A huge unmanned aircraft operated by the Navy crashed Monday along Maryland’s eastern shore, the Navy confirmed, but no injuries or personnel damage has been reported.

The crash, at about 12:11 eastern time, reportedly took place in a marshy area of the Nanticoke River, near Bloodsworth Island in Dorchester, Md., about 20 miles from the city of Salisbury.

The Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator (BAMS-D) aircraft, a modified Air Force Global Hawk RQ-4, is operated from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., as part of the overall BAMS development program. The jet-powered plane, one of the largest unmanned vehicles operated by the U.S. military, has a wingspan of more than 130 feet, although it is only about 47 feet long. The Navy operates at least five BAMS demonstrators, some of which have been deployed to Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Fortunately, this landed in a relatively unpopulated area, unless you count Greenheads and Speckled Trout.  I'm pretty sure this is one reason the areas is so heavily used by the Navy for it's experimental aircraft.

I wonder if Pete saw it; he's been fishing that area a lot lately.

A video of the crash site from an airplane:

No comments:

Post a Comment