NEW DELHI – An Indian Navy Israeli drone crashed in Gujarat today, soonafter it took off from the coastal city of Porbandar this morning. Thedrone – a Heron UAV or unmanned aerial vehicle was going for a routinesurveillance exercise when it crashed shortly after take off.
A statement by the Indian Navy has confirmed that there are been no injuryor loss of life caused by the drone crash. It also states that though aninitial investigation suggests the cause of the crash to be an enginefailure, a board of inquiry has been set up to analyse and carry out athorough investigation and give a detailed report of the cause of the crash.
“There has been no injury to anyone. Preliminary inputs indicate failure ofthe RPA engine,” a navy spokesperson said.
The Indian Navy Heron drone crashed at around 10 am, shortly after take offin Porbandar
The investigation of the crash is important as different versions of theHeron UAV are in operation with all three Indian Armed Forces since 2001.In fact, India plans to buy more Heron drones from Israel over the next fewyears.
Though there is no formal data on crashes involving Heron UAVs, reportssuggest that the average crash rate of these drones, since 2013, have beenone per cent, the Indian Navy statement said.
The Heron is a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicledeveloped by the Malat division of Israel Aerospace Industries. It iscapable of carrying out operations for up to 52 consecutive hours at aheight of 35,000 feet. The drone navigates using an inbuilt GPS device andcan perform both pre-programmed flights which require no remote assistance,as well as manual flights using a remote from the ground control station.
The Heron drone that crashed today was an RPA or Remotely Piloted Aircraft,which suggests that it may have been operating on the manual mode. Thedrone crashed at around 10 am, and the site of the crash is close to theair base.