Hmm. RQ4 Global Hawk just declared an emergency off the Delmarva peninsula.
This is unusual, given that the RQ4 is a drone…
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@mattblaze Great! Awesome! I think the RQ4 isn’t usually armed. But it is still a fairly big chunk of metal, waiting to fall on someone. Did the pilot (on the ground) loose guidance of the thing? Is it on its own, hallucinating?
@mattblaze are you following it on adsb org?
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@mattblaze Funny zigzag flight
@mattblaze not allowed to squawk 77 because it's going straight to the abyss
I wonder if this is related to the (rescheduled) Falcon Virgo exercise that’s about to start.
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More likely a genuine emergency? Why would a "enemy" UAV broadcast 7700 as part of any hypothetical plan? 🤔🤷♂️
Now it’s turned inland, heading in the general direction of DC, which reinforces my suspicion that this is an exercise.
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Just turned. Heading north, maybe toward Dover. But still at 30000 ft, so maybe not.
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Heading back toward DC again, and slowly descending.
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Now down to about 6000 feet, and heading towards DC again. Or KNHK, which is on the way here.
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@mattblaze Since the current administration seems to use Tom Clancy novels as manuals for some policy areas, it would not be surprising if the exercise scenario was the kamikaze attack on the Capitol from “Debt of Honor”.
Just noticed there’s an active NOTAM for UAV activity around Ft McNair in DC.
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@mattblaze Is it headed for Patuxent?
@mattblaze Where do those things land and take off from? I imagine they are so much slower than commercial traffic....
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@ai6yr this one started out in Jacksonville, about 8 hours ago. Was circling off the Delmarva Peninsula for the last few hours, before it started squawking 7700.
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@mattblaze That is interesting. I haven't done a lot of drone monitoring, but am now wondering if they might do an automated broadcast in case of mechanical or avionics failure?
FWIW if someone were to "release the #EpsteinFiles" via leaflet drop from drones nationwide that would be bad-ass...
@mattblaze Probably mechanical issues of some sort? Sure it's unmanned but they still want to get it on the ground asap to avoid it potentially going down somewhere it can cause damage on the ground, to say nothing of destroying a bunch of taxpayer dollars.
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@azonenberg well, it’s probably not a sick passenger.
@mattblaze lost control? Danger to other aircraft in the area?
bonfire of thepocolips
come over, warm up. coffee?
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