The mystery of the drone flying above New York City
By Peter Weber | The Week – 10 hrs agoRelated Content
After an Alitalia pilot has a frightening encounter with a UFO near JFK airport, there are more questions than answers
On Monday, the Obama administration told Congress
that it's possible "to imagine an extraordinary circumstance" — like a
9/11-level attack — in which it would deploy an aerial drone to kill an
American on U.S. soil. And quite coincidentally, that same day, the Federal Aviation Administration said a drone had been spotted in the airspace near Queens and Brooklyn. An Alitalia pilot landing at JFK airport had this jarring conversation with an air-traffic controller:
JFK controller: Uh, what did you see?
Alitalia pilot: We saw a drone, a drone aircraft
JFK controller: What altitude did you see that aircraft?
Alitalia pilot: About 1,500 feet.
You can listen to the raw audio below, but here are the basic details: The airplane was about three miles from JFK runway 31R when the pilot saw a black, unmanned aircraft
with four propellers, about 3 feet wide. The drone was reportedly a
frightening 200 feet away from the plane, some 1,750 feet in the air.SEE MORE: 5 embarrassingly bad rap videos that should have never been madeAlitalia pilot: We saw a drone, a drone aircraft
JFK controller: What altitude did you see that aircraft?
Alitalia pilot: About 1,500 feet.
What was this drone doing near JFK, and who was controlling it? The FAA wants to know, and so does the FBI. "The FBI is asking anyone with information about the unmanned aircraft or the operator to contact us," special agent John Giacalone said in a statement. "Our paramount concern is the safety of aircraft passengers and crew."
Without a better description, "it's impossible to tell if this might be
some sort of heavy-duty unmanned aerial vehicle, or a hobbyist remote
controlled gadget," says Adrian Chen at Gawker.
But there are some clues: The NYPD doesn't fly drones — yet — and the
description, if accurate, sounds more like a hobbyist quadrocopter.
Plus, JFK is just a few miles from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, "a
favorite spot for remote-controlled plane enthusiasts." Maybe one of
those hobbyists decided to flout the FAA's rule
that remote-controlled aircraft stay under 400 feet and stay in sight
of the operator, who has to notify air traffic controllers if the
aircraft will fly within three miles of an airport.SEE MORE: Today in history: March 6
"Whether it was a hobbyist breaking the Federal Aviation Administration’s 400-foot-altitude rule or a real spy vessel from the Evil Empire is unknown," says David Kravets at Wired. "Either way, there's a UFO out there and it came within 200 feet of the plane." That's frightening, and it's going to become more common after a new law, the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, takes effect. Under that law, "the FAA has a September 2015 deadline to open up U.S. skies to commercial and civil drones," says Ryan Gallagher at Slate.
While the word drone conjures up images of large military-style Predators or Reapers, in this case the aircraft seems to have been more in line with a radio-controlled plane used for recreational purposes. A similar incident was reported to have occurred in Denver last year, when a "mystery object" suspected of being a model aircraft nearly caused a collision at some 8,000 feet.... As drone technology becomes more affordable for private citizens to purchase, it follows that the risks will heighten, as the incidents in New York and Denver perhaps demonstrate. [Slate]
The near-miss was worrisome, but can we stop calling the aircraft a "drone"? says Adam Clark Estes at Vice. "The difference in wording seems slight, but the connotation is significant." People don't freak out over "a hobbyist whose remote-controlled aircraft flew too high," but the FBI asking about a rogue "drone" — to its credit, it didn't, opting for the more accurate "unnamed aircraft" — is a whole other matter, needlessly conjuring up the wars in Afghanistan and Yemen.SEE MORE: Blaming Obama for the sequester
From a 30,000-foot point of view, Tuesday morning's scare in the air is just the latest sign that the drone era has arrived and will be taking over our lives in increasingly local ways.... As far as anybody knows, the lone quadrocopter (or whatever it was) in Brooklyn was not a domestic strike. It was probably not a military aircraft. All signs point to a daring hobbyist having a fun afternoon. More broadly speaking, all signs point to America hearing a lot more reports like this as the hobby grows. [Vice]
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end quote from:
http://news.yahoo.com/mystery-drone-flying-above-york-city-095500293.html
Since most small domestic drones are "flying Cameras" you won't hear them because of the new light batteries and because they are electric. Though they might only be in the air a matter of minutes this would be time for them to secretly take a picture of anything including through windows and over fences. But another problem also shows up in this article of potential collisions with jets and other planes during landing and takeoff. Most domestic drones can't fly above 2000 feet in altitude because of how they are controlled and because of power sources. But, if you were using gasoline engine hybrid drone planes with wings and solar cells along the top of the wings like the two passenger solar powered plane from Switzerland, a drone could theoretically be aloft 24 hours or more at a time. So, because of all of this and potential weaponized drones some drones might be durable and strong enough to carry a remote operated pistol or other weapon, concern about drones will increase worldwide from now on.
Imagine someone with a modified small drone like you see in the article above with just a small gun barrel, a silencer, and a camera video sight used like a scope and viewed remotely with a small caliber like a .22 hollow point bullet. This would be very light and the likely weapon of a future assassin. So, drones both military, police, and domestic around the world are a problem the world is not ready for now and might never be. And if the drone and weapon were stolen there would be no way to trace it back to the perpetrator. Like I said the world is NOT ready for this because it could and is changing everything.
MUCH LATER April 16th 2013.
I think if people have drones parked in the air above their homes any length of time I think people will either shoot them down or blind them with little hand lasers or throw rocks at them and various other things. Or maybe use a jamming device to make them lose signal and crash. Because if they lose a control signal from their Ipad or other controller likely they would crash if not autonomous.
Since most small domestic drones are "flying Cameras" you won't hear them because of the new light batteries and because they are electric. Though they might only be in the air a matter of minutes this would be time for them to secretly take a picture of anything including through windows and over fences. But another problem also shows up in this article of potential collisions with jets and other planes during landing and takeoff. Most domestic drones can't fly above 2000 feet in altitude because of how they are controlled and because of power sources. But, if you were using gasoline engine hybrid drone planes with wings and solar cells along the top of the wings like the two passenger solar powered plane from Switzerland, a drone could theoretically be aloft 24 hours or more at a time. So, because of all of this and potential weaponized drones some drones might be durable and strong enough to carry a remote operated pistol or other weapon, concern about drones will increase worldwide from now on.
Imagine someone with a modified small drone like you see in the article above with just a small gun barrel, a silencer, and a camera video sight used like a scope and viewed remotely with a small caliber like a .22 hollow point bullet. This would be very light and the likely weapon of a future assassin. So, drones both military, police, and domestic around the world are a problem the world is not ready for now and might never be. And if the drone and weapon were stolen there would be no way to trace it back to the perpetrator. Like I said the world is NOT ready for this because it could and is changing everything.
MUCH LATER April 16th 2013.
I think if people have drones parked in the air above their homes any length of time I think people will either shoot them down or blind them with little hand lasers or throw rocks at them and various other things. Or maybe use a jamming device to make them lose signal and crash. Because if they lose a control signal from their Ipad or other controller likely they would crash if not autonomous.
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