A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) experienced a nose-wheel collapse, resulting in a hard landing, on arrival at its home base on Mathis Field, San Angelo Regional Airport, on May 15.
The hard landing resulted in the aircraft departing from the runway and coming to rest in the grass. The airport fire department arrived on scene within minutes and extinguished a fire on the aircraft. Initial damage assessment of the aircraft is extensive. There were no injuries resulting from the incident.
A CBP AMO Accident Investigation Team has been activated as per CBP policy. AMO will pause flight operations at San Angelo until further notice.
Witnesses say the drone crashed.
This is not the first time a Predator Drone has crashed at Mathis Field.
An eye-witness said:
I watched that drone flying erratically all over the sky about an hour ago. Looked like it having trouble flying in the wind.. Wing tipping left and right.
Photo: Live Photo | Matt Trammell
Source: San Angelo Live;
Was it a Predator or a Guardian?
Good question – the Press Release doesn’t specify so we used the ‘generic’ term…