UAV ved Det Hvite Hus - Interessante betraktninger

White House Drone Crash Described as a U.S. Worker’s Drunken Lark

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDTJAN. 27, 2015

Photo

A drone that crashed on the grounds of the White House had

evaded radar detection. CreditUS Secret Service

It was 46 degrees and raining lightly around 3 a.m. on

Monday when an inebriated off-duty employee for a

government intelligence agency decided it was a good

time to fly his friend’s drone, a 2-foot-by-2-foot

“quadcopter” that sells for hundreds of dollars and is

popular among hobbyists.But officials say the plan was

foiled, perhaps by wind or a tree, when the employee —

who has not been named by the Secret

Service or charged with a crime — lost control of the drone

as he operated it from an apartment just blocks from the

White House.

He texted his friends, worried that the drone had gone

down on the White House grounds, and then went to sleep.

It was not until the next morning, when he woke and

learned from friends that a drone had been found at the

White House, that he contacted his employer, the National

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He then called the Secret

Service and immediately began cooperating with an

investigation into the incident.

The small drone, called a DJI Phantom, evaded White

House radar that is calibrated to warn of much bigger

threats, like an airplane or a missile. Although White

House officials characterized the drone as not dangerous,

it nonetheless has raised serious questions about how

secure President Obama and his family are when they are

home.In the process of what officials describe as nothing

more than a drunken misadventure, the employee

managed to highlight another vulnerability in the

protective shield that the Secret Service erects around the

White House complex.

Over the past several years, the Secret Service’s air branch

has intensively studied ways to stop small drones that

could be operated by terrorists or people determined to

harm the president, law enforcement officials said. A

classified review of how to bring down small drones has led

the agency to try to develop new ways to detect them. An

on-duty officer at the White House spotted the drone flying

near the residence on Monday, but could not stop it.

A spokesman for the geospatial-intelligence agency

confirmed on Tuesday that the Secret Service had

questioned a government employee the day before in

connection with the drone episode.

Mr. Kerr said in a statement that the employee had used

 “a personal item,” but that the agency took the incident

seriously. He declined to identify the employee or say

what disciplinary action, if any, was being taken.“The

employee self-reported the incident Monday,” said the s

pokesman, Don Kerr. “The employee was off duty and is

not involved in work related to drones or unmanned

aerial vehicles in any capacity at N.G.A.”

Secret Service investigators were trying to verify the

employee’s account on Tuesday as they interviewed people

he said he had contacted in the hours before the episode.

They were also examining his text messages and phone

records as well as analyzing video footage from cameras

around the apartment where the man said he had operated

the drone.

Although planes are restricted from
entering the airspace around the White
House and it is illegal to operate a
drone in Washington, it is unclear whether
the man will be charged with a crime.
Some Secret Service officials believe he
should be prosecuted in an effort to deter
others.

Officials at the geospatial-intelligence agency — which is
based near Springfield, Va., as part of the Defense
Department — prefer to stay out of the headlines. The
agency uses satellites to gather data for the military and
other law enforcement and intelligence agencies. According
to its website, the agency played a role in helping locate the
compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was hiding.
Using high-resolution photographs of the compound taken
by satellite, the agency then helped create a replica of the
compound so that a team of Navy SEALs could rehearse the
raid in which bin Laden was ultimately killed in 2011. The
website says the agency also helped discover atrocities in
Kosovo, provided support for intelligence operations during t
he Olympics and assisted in the response to Hurricane Katrina.