Spy Plane Crashes Into School - No One Hurt

An US unmanned spy plane crashed into a school in Kabul, Afghanistan yesterday. No one was hurt.

From: News.com.au:

AN unmanned spy plane believed to be operated by a US security firm crashed into a school in the Afghan capital Kabul without causing any casualties, an eyewitness and sources told AFP today.

The unmanned 1.5m-long drone smashed into a window at the French-funded Istiqlal high school close to President Hamid Karzai's palace, according to a senior official at the school.

Two heavily-armed Americans in plain clothes jumped the wall of the palace into the school grounds and removed the wreckage, offering to pay for repairs

Did they loose control of their aircraft because of a technical error or something? Human error perhaps? I guess they didn�t crash it into this school on purpose since they offered to pay for the damage.

[edit on 2004/12/2 by Hellmutt]

I think they have some UAV circling the government palace and other "green zones" round the clock to get an early warning on attacks.

The school is French-funded but still I think it's just an minor accident.

Among radio control airplane enthusiasts, this is referred to as �re-kitting� your plane.

In other words, they have to take it back to the �garage� and rebuild it.

Two heavily-armed Americans in plain clothes jumped the wall of the palace into the school grounds and removed the wreckage, offering to pay for repairs

I would love to know more about these fine young hobbyists. I'll go out on a limb and assume that they don't represent the Academy of Model Aeronautics.

"Heavily-armed Americans in plain clothes"? Where I live, that could describe just about anyone.

"They presented themselves with a code name: planet," Mr Massat-Bourrat said.

I'll go even further out on a limb and predict that this codeword is no longer valid.

Majic, might you also be from Alabama? Being in an area that is full of armed people is a good thing!

I'm just stepping out on a limb, here, but I would imagine a good possibility could be that the operator fell asleep at the joystick and augered the expensive toy into the dirt. I imagine that is about as thrilling as monitoring security cameras.