Photo : Le Seychellois Hebdo
A US unmanned surveillance aircraft crashed on Tuesday at Seychelles international airport on the main island of Mahe, the US embassy said.
At approximately 10.13 hours, a US remote-piloted MQ-9 aircraft took off from Seychelles International Airport on a routine patrol. Minutes into the flight, the tower was informed that the aircraft was experiencing engine problems and needed to land as soon as possible.
The aircraft landed with a failed engine at 10.19 hours, but due to its accelerated landing speed, the aircraft was unable to stop before the runways’ end. It exited among rock armoring at the extreme southern end of the runway at which point a fire broke out due to the impact.
The Seychelles International Airport Fire Services immediately intervened and the fire was controlled within minutes.
Lina Laurence of Seychelles’ civilian aviation authority said the remote-piloted MQ-9 aircraft developed engine problems minutes into its flight and needed to land as soon as possible Tuesday morning. ‘But due to its accelerated landing speed, the aircraft was unable to stop before the runway’s end,’ Laurence said.
The embassy’s statement said the cause of the crash is being investigated. ‘It has been confirmed that this drone was unarmed and its failure was due to mechanical reasons,’ Laurence said. “The MQ-9 was not armed and no injuries were reported,” said the Embassy. “The runway at the airport has reopened for normal traffic. The cause of the incident is unknown and currently under investigation.”The affected runway was closed for about 10 minutes as a ‘precautionary measure,’ but was later reopened with no disruption to airport operations, Laurence said.
Gervais Henrie, editor of the local Le Seychellois Hebdo, who witnessed a crew lifting the remains of the drone with a crane after the crash, said it had burst into flames. Much of the Reaper appeared charred. “Totally destroyed,” Henrie said in a phone interview.
Hernie said Seychellois often see the Reapers flying overhead, and that they have come to accept them as a a routine part of living in the islands.
The U.S. military is believed to have only a handful of Reapers in the Seychelles, based in a hangar located about a quarter-mile from the main passenger terminal at the airport.
The US drones began anti-piracy surveillance in late 2009 after the Seychelles and the US Africa Command tested the aircraft to be used in seeking out Somali gunmen prowling the Indian Ocean.
With 115 islands scattered inside an exclusive economic zone spanning 1.4 million square kilometres, a population of only 85,000 and a military of 500, the Seychelles requested foreign assistance to stave off the pirates.
US unmanned aircraft also overfly Somalia from an Ethiopian airbase, but Washington officials have denied media reports that the aircraft are armed and attack Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militia fighting the Western-backed Somali government.
Sources: Capital FM Kenya, The Washington Post, ETN News