The Israeli Air Force on Saturday grounded a fleet of armed drones after one aircraft was damaged during takeoff earlier in the day, the military said.
It was the third time in four months that the IAF had grounded the fleet of IAI Heron 1 drones, known in the military as the Shoval.
“A Shoval drone was damaged during takeoff earlier this morning. There were no injuries and the incident will be investigated,” the military said in a statement. “The commander of the Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, ordered that the Shoval fleet be grounded until the end of the investigation of the incident,” it added.
A military source said the craft that was damaged was taken to be repaired.
In November, a Heron 1 crashed near the southern city of Arad, causing a fire and leading to the grounding of the entire fleet for a month, until repairs were made to a faulty flight control component that had apparently caused the crash.
The cause of the incident Saturday did not appear to be the same issue that caused the November crash, the military source said.
The Heron 1 has seen several crashes due to various malfunctions, including in September, when one crashed into the sea along Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon and was retrieved by the Navy.
The Air Force briefly grounded the fleet following that crash too.
Source: The Times of Israel