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A United States military drone presumed to be a QF-4 crashed, exploded and sent up a large black cloud of smoke Wednesday morning at Tyndall Air Force Base.
A United States military drone presumed to be a QF-4 crashed, exploded and sent up a large black cloud of smoke Wednesday morning at Tyndall Air Force Base.
Local
news outlets from the Florida panhandle region reported Wednesday morning that
an unmanned aerial vehicle crashed on the drone runway at Tyndall AFB during
take-off at 8:20 a.m. EST that morning.
Eyewitnesses
told WJHG News that the drone “came in hard and fast” before it crashed.
According
to the network, Tyndall officials said the drone was carrying a small
self-destruct charge and “had to be destroyed for safety considerations
during its return to base following a routine operation.”
Following
the accident, the UAV reportedly went up in flames and started a ground fire,
prompting authorities to close nearby Highway 98. They’ve reported no injuries.
“This
closure is being done strictly as a precautionary measure due to fires
resulting from the crash and a small self-destruct charge carried on board the
drone,” officials from Tyndall said in a statement. “The status of this
device is unknown, however it is powered by a short-life battery which will be
fully depleted in 24 hours.”
The
Air Force described the QF-4 as a supersonic, reusable full-scale target drone
modified from the F-4 Phantom and “provides a realistic full-scale target
for air-to-air weapons system evaluation, development and testing.” The
aircraft measures 63 feet long, 30,328 pounds and has a wingspan of more than 38
feet. Converting each jet to a UAV costs the Air Force an average of $2.6
million.
Only
last week, officials at Tyndall ordered another QF-4 to self-destruct over the
Gulf of Mexico. “The drone was carrying a small self-destruct charge and had
to be destroyed for safety considerations during its return to base following a
routine operation,” Tyndall announced at the time.
Late
last year, an F-22 Raptor fighter jet crashed near Tyndall AFB, again prompting
officials to close down Highway 98. An Air Force pilot safely ejected from the
aircraft before the jet crashed a quarter-mile east of the drone runway.
Source : RT News
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