A U.S. drone pilot made a mistake with the joystick, causing an MQ-9A drone to crash directly into Hancock Base within 65 seconds.
The U.S. Air Force recently released an accident investigation report, saying that a drone pilot with hundreds of flight hours, last June, caused an MQ-9A “Reaper” (Reaper) drone to crash directly into the base within 65 seconds due to a mistake in the joystick, causing more than $6 million (about NT $170 million) worth of damage. The damage was worth more than US$6 million (about NT$170 million).
Lt. Col. Brian E. Prichard of the U.S. Air Force, who investigated the accident, said in the report that the crashed MQ-9A drone was part of the 108th Attack Squadron of the 174th Attack Wing of the New York State Air Force National Guard, which took off from Hancock Field Air National Guard Base on June 25, 2020, and climbed successfully to 18,000 feet (about 5,486 meters) of military airspace.
However, after the first pilot completed takeoff operations and handed over control to the follow-on, the latter pulled the condition lever handle (Condition Lever), which has the purpose of cutting off fuel supply, propeller feathering and controlling propeller speed, when trying to control the flaps, causing the engine to stall without fuel. The subsequent operation caused the propeller to stop rotating and finally crashed on the base runway within 65 seconds, causing a total loss of $6 million.
The investigation report states that although the two pilots were certified, had hundreds of flight hours, and received the required rest periods, the erroneous joystick was similar in appearance and color, only 1 inch (about 2.54 centimeters) apart, and the pilot had to keep his eyes on the heads-up display during takeoff operations, which ultimately led to the accident.
Therefore, Pritchard believes that the accident should be blamed on the “poor design” of the ground control system, not only the joystick may be confused, and the lack of safety design, easy to let the inexperienced, lack of rest, or in a confused state of the crew error.
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