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Drone Hits Blackhawk Helicopter

500 feet, I mean how slow were they flying the Black Hawk. And it was a DJI.
DJI has been discontinued by our military because of embedded spyware. I'm wondering if this was done on purpose, jerk!
 
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Yeah, the helicopter was there paroling for the UN General Assembly this weekend. I'm more concerned with the DGI 'Fly Safe' map not giving any indication that Staten Island appears to be under a flight restriction at the moment. DJI has a disclaimer but in my opinion, unless you can provide accurate current information you shouldn't provide it at all. Basically all of New York (the city) is under the Heli Pad 5 mile radius. I wouldn't feel comfortable flying there at all, let alone this person who was 100' above their legal ceiling of 400'.

I don't think DJI was discontinued because of spyware per se, the military discontinued them because you can't turn off the always on phone home feature which in this case sends a lot of data back to China. It's more indicative of where the industry is heading, this whole IoT (internet of things) mantra. Personally I hate it and feel like I'm always being monitored. I've sort of come to accept it with my smart phone but it's still unnerving when my phone asks me to review the place I'm at. Unfortunately we don't manufacture many consumer electronics here in the US and most are going the way of the internet of things. Since they are mostly made in China, the data goes there.

I'm really not opposed to people being required to pass a basic competency exam (not part 107, just something simple) to obtain a license at a minimum to fly. Just like needing a license to drive. It's not perfect but it is a contract that says you understand the law. On a similar news piece around this incident, a military pilot said, "This never would happen if you follow the rules."
 
It is just so easy to go to any store and pick up a multi rotor aircraft, take it home and have it flying with in an hour. You can't do that with a fixed wing aircraft, takes time to learn to control it. With most Multi rotors, don't like what it is doing take your hands off the sticks and it will just hover in place.
Makes it very dangerous and easy for anyone to get into the air without any knowledge of airspace, rules, and safety. I constantly see in various forums where people post or should I say brag about how far out they had their "DRONE". If we all ever end up being grounded here in the USA it will be because of idiots like that.
And I still hate the word DRONE. These are Radio Controlled Multi Rotor Aircraft.
 
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This could very well be fake news again. Posted on the facebook page UAV Legal News & Discussion by one of their members.

"There are a number of items yet unresolved with this story. I literally just spoke on the phone with the person who broke the story a few hours ago. Details that were provide are as yet unverified and quite suspect. Here is more information key to this story: The claim was that the Blackhawk (titanium rotors) was in flight at approximate 500' AGL over the IFR / VFR corridor above the Hudson near Coney Island (JFK ATC) around 7-8pm yesterday evening and was among 3 other blackhawks. They were being used to transport VIPs for the UN conference. This is within the 30 mile VIP TFR. Four occupants and the chief crew member saw a drone hit the side of the aircraft and bounce upward into the rotor. The portion of the drone (appears to be the arm of a DJI Phantom 4 Pro neatly severed) was discovered upon landing in an engine area. The claim is made that NYPD, Secret Service, and others were notified and looking for the pilot. Claim further is that the damage is $200k to the rotor alone. What we don't have yet is confirmation of ANY collision investigation by NTSB / FAA, no police scanner verification of a call out to look for an operator (that work is underway currently), no ATC conversation (we are currently listening to hours of archived ATC materials out of JFK to confirm), and no news story other than this one that was created hours after the photos were posted on facebook tagging known anti-drone helicopter operators who work for NY media companies.

In other words, stay tuned, and don't necessarily buy in. Your help may be needed for listening to ATC recordings - LiveATC.net has archives that we need to pour through."
 
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Just like the fake news drone hit in Africa on the aircraft, this is fake news at its best.
Not any chance its real as a DJi drone wouldn't do that damage to a blackhawk... unless the blackhawk is made out of tissue paper and spit... which might be true being that they were built by the very lowest bidder for the military that has no oversight.

Wait and watch the media dogs bite and chew on this one, then watch none of them retract the fake story when it is proven they made it all up.
 
A Blackhawk is a transport aircraft with armament usually intended for the defensive, not offensive, although they can be fitted with some pretty good stuff. Having ridden in them I know the skins are not armored and relatively thin to keep weight down. The rotor blades are not 100% titanium. They are a composition of metal, carbon fiber and Kevlar. $200,000.00 for a single blade sounds a little on the light side.
 
I was originally going to say why didn't the rotor wash swoosh away the sUAV. Pat you and I know helicopters, how in the world did a part end up in the oil cooler. I'm trying to locate a diagram / design where oil cooler is located.
 
500 feet, I mean how slow were they flying the Black Hawk. And it was a DJI.
DJI has been discontinued by our military because of embedded spyware. I'm wondering if this was done on purpose, jerk!

The us military has it out for dji. I thought it would be messed up if they ever wanted to spy on us. They have a lot of data on a lot users worldwide. (Dji). This was one of the reason I stayed away. Military was cautious, so makes me think as well.
 
Not good news for the UAV
community

Drone hits Army helicopter over New York
I do not believe this AT ALL. The rotor wash from a full sized Helo would have blown any drone straight downwards.
Only option is it went into the rotors from the top, in this case seeing as the leading edges of the blades are reinforced I doubt a plastic drone would have caused any real damage.
 
It happened. Although never published, it wasn’t even the first, second, or third time. The first three happened in places news reporters don’t have free access.
 
It happened. Although never published, it wasn’t even the first, second, or third time. The first three happened in places news reporters don’t have free access.
Hello Pat, I am guessing by your comments that you are ex military like myself with access to non public info? I find this quite concerning, while these helps are hardened to a degree it makes me wonder if someone could pop a kilo of rdx under one and fly it to within 100m of a helicopter before detonating it! Very worrying indeed. Apparently in the UK we recently had a UAV pass over the wing if a landing airbus for heavens sake. Maybe some system where every drone and handset links board 4g or WiFi to a central database as soon as it is activated. That way we could track and contain worrying individuals. Your thoughts Pat?
 
I was closely associated with the military complex and as such was generally aware of events that occurred within my area of endeavor. It was disturbing to learn of a UAV over flying of a landing passenger airliner. If true the event would add another layer of argument in support of those seeking to take control of activities they personally object to.

As for a "tracking system", that's exactly what governments and some manufacturers want. Such would do little to protect the public, more on that in a moment, but it would provide another avenue for governments to collect revenue for licenses, registration, and user services. This is especially true in the EU and UK where exorbitant fees are charged for every aspect of aviation services, even when such services were not provided. An attempt to incorporate similar (privatization of the air traffic control system) is now being made here in the U.S. At least one manufacturer would generate an enormous amount of revenue if their "drone tracking" features were adopted by governments, forcing other makers to pay licensing fees for each and every one of their models to the company that developed the software. Such a program would also serve as a means for government to affect more control over the general population, something they lust for to assure the ruling elite can maintain their positions of privilege and power. We should also remember that a large segment of manned aviation, at least in the U.S., has no tracking requirements and their capacity for destruction is orders of magnitude greater than a small multirotor.

Any device or vehicle can be altered in a manner that would permit use for nefarious or destructive purposes. Radio control cars were long ago used as a platform of destruction, and our governments made it a point to weaponize drones for destructive use with no public oversight. We've all seen what can be done with an automobile, truck, or suitcase and no amount of regulation has prevented their adaptation for destructive application. Even the corpses of "road kill" animals have been used for destructive purposes. Since intelligent people are resourceful and creative they have always found a way to get around hardware and software limitations. Those with the skills, and there are many, can build what they want and use components that lack restrictions, unless such components are blocked from public access. To do that would require that Chinese industry be prevented from distributing their products to the world. Without mentioning the aspect of smuggling, the chance of that happening is virtually nil as China holds so much of the world's debt that governments fear doing anything that might deter the Chinese government from lending more money in the form of debt acquisition. It has been well established that almost nobody can force Chinese accountability.

Where all have failed is in education. The rules for safe operation of aircraft have been in place for ~80 years yet manufacturers have been permitted to market 'toys" that have the ability to seriously disrupt the operation of manned aviation without any requirement for buyers to understand applicable laws and regulations. We have allowed the generation of corporate profit through toy sales to take priority over public safety. There has been ample time for regulation and program development requiring those wishing to purchase an automated aircraft to become aware of airspace regulations and safe operating practices. Simple testing would establish a user understands well enough to be allowed to purchase, own, and operate. There has also been a lack of enforcement action strong enough to make people understand the cost of irresponsibility. Far too few have been vigorously prosecuted for actions that jeopardized the public. There are no qualifiers to buying and flying a semi-autonomous drone, and we should note none of this was an issue until model aircraft autopilots were made small and cheap enough to become affordable by the general public. There is also a need to create a certification standard that assures systems have the reliability to remain under the control of the user at all times. Education and training are, IMHO, the means that would best limit the number of accidental and errant events that are of concern to manned aviation. We can't eliminate threat, but it can be reduced if people understand their responsibility before they take possession of an sUAS.

Those with the intent to cause harm will always find a way to make their attempt. I do not believe it's possible to prevent violence and mayhem without first controlling the mental state of the world population. In a way I can see where attempts to do exactly that through social engineering have generated the problems those efforts were intended to eliminate. There are many other factors that have evolved over time that contribute to issues with undesirable social interaction but lack of public interest doesn't make this type of discussion appropriate for them.
 
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I do not believe this AT ALL. The rotor wash from a full sized Helo would have blown any drone straight downwards.
Only option is it went into the rotors from the top, in this case seeing as the leading edges of the blades are reinforced I doubt a plastic drone would have caused any real damage.
I agree,wind pressure would pull most things up into rotors, scary thought.
 

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