Leon,
"in the case of the Pred/Reaper if the aircraft goes "lost link" then it will fly the planned route to a destination and hold, squawk a specific squawk to let ATC know that the human has lost control of it and ATC will get other air users out of its way (just like a manned aircraft squawking 7600)."
There is surely a
massive difference in that the manned aircraft squawking 7600 still has humans on board capable of exercising basic airmanship - including keeping a lookout
for other airspace users.
What? A belt as well as braces? But the elastic on these braces is enough, surely.... (sudden twang)
The official cause of the crash has been ascribed to a " loss of situational awareness" . The UAV ground controller thought the UAV had not taken off, when in fact it had, and closed down the engines. The UAV then crashed due to the operator instruction to cut engine power.
So where was the UAV to blame for that?
Well, for starters, had the said operator had his little pink body sat inside the vehicle, instead of in an air conditioned control cabin, he might have had some vague inkling that he'd left the fecking ground, and might have been a little less hasty in shutting down.
Fltlt and Ozymandias,
Well put. So well put, in fact that I can only sit dumbly by and applaud.
