Drones hover over Paris landmarks and U.S. Embassy

some aerial shenanigans in Paris.

"(CNN)Five drones were reportedly seen flying over sensitive and well-known areas of Paris overnight -- sightings that authorities are investigating, the city prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

The unmanned aerial vehicles were spotted over the Eiffel Tower, the Bastille, Place de la Concorde, Les Invalides and the U.S. Embassy, according to Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor's office."

edition.cnn.com... (video report at link)

also

"Paris police say they have spotted at least five drones flying over the French capital overnight, and an investigation is under way into who was flying them and why." yet... "French authorities said the drones currently present no threat"

www.theguardian.com...

a reply to: RoScoLaz4

I've seen this quite a few times now over the past few months.. and I wonder:

If a rag-tag regime like Iran can take down a MQ-170, why is it western powers cannot capture or even identify these drones? This whole story smells and has for a while.

a reply to: doompornjunkie

Because they're small quadcopters. They're short range and extremely difficult to deal with short of taking a shotgun to them. By the time you detect them, get the tracking and spoofing gear up and running, they're already landing because they're out of fuel.

An RQ-170 on the other hand spends a lot of time going to and from the target area, including loitering over the target. That gives you a lot of reaction time to deal with it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Makes sense, thanks.

I'm sure they would make fun targets for the LaWS system though. Just mount it up on a rooftop and have at it.

These sound connected to the drones which have been flying over European and French nuclear plants...

Apparently, some experts think that they are intended to cause fear, rather than being used for reconnaissance or intelligence for terrorist groups or the like...

Still very odd. I hope the police find the people behind these drones so they can discern what's going on...

originally posted by: daaskapital
These sound connected to the drones which have been flying over European and French nuclear plants....

quite possibly. interesting stuff.

www.theguardian.com...

(link is to 2014 news item about said drones over power plants)

It's probably google earth making more maps.

I don't know the laws in Paris, but are these types of drones ones that anyone can easily acquire? They sound small so I assume so. If so it could be anything from terrorists to filmmakers to idiot kids playing with their parents' toys.

a reply to: FireflyStars

i think they're what Zaphod described earlier (quadcopter type)

originally posted by: doompornjunkie
If a rag-tag regime like Iran can take down a MQ-170, why is it western powers cannot capture or even identify these drones? This whole story smells and has for a while.

You are right about that, something is going on

originally posted by: LotToTell2
You are right about that, something is going on

If the drones in question are small, commercially available quadcopters, as seems to be the case, then unless you already have shotgun in hand when you spot them, there's not much you can do, since they are so small and the flight time is so limited. Others have already pointed this out.

So, if by "something is going on", you mean the entire populace isn't walking around with shotguns slung over their shoulder everywhere they go, then I would have to agree with you.

a reply to: FireflyStars

They run from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. Some of them have a mount for a smart phone and a visor you can wear. You plug it in and turn the camera on and it sends the image back to the visor.

Well here comes the backfire of the drone era, drones and their future are now under more scrutiny than ever.

Now people will understand why we can not, by any means allow this technology to run rampant over our skies and into our backyards.

Is all about national security and how vulnerable any nation is while this, over the counter drones can be bought by any body.

A couple of posters mention shotguns. I doubt if firing a shotgun at something flying above the Eiffel Tower is, ah, legal, in Paris.

This drone thing has the potential to get really odd. And "No-Drone" fly zones will probably have to be set up around government buildings and major landmarks worldwide, with no-drone technology stopping them from flying in that space (risking, or course, injury to someone when they fall from the sky). Have people seen the South Park episode this years which takes the drone trend to one of its ultimate levels? A very good episode.

originally posted by: doompornjunkie
a reply to: RoScoLaz4

I've seen this quite a few times now over the past few months.. and I wonder:

If a rag-tag regime like Iran can take down a MQ-170, why is it western powers cannot capture or even identify these drones? This whole story smells and has for a while.

Because shooting down a UAV over an unpopulated area of Iran is nothing like shooting down a UAV over the middle of Paris, perhaps?

Or, perhaps, it's because this is not military grade drone technology, so the infrastructure and tech to take this little thing down doesn't exist in the way it does to confront military UAV's.

This is not some armed drone from hundreds or thousands of miles away with complex communications and tracking, it's a shop-bought remote control craft using a shorter leash and one that's far harder to see over such a large area.

a reply to: marg6043

They're small, short range cheap remote control aircraft. These aren't military UAV platforms. The only way to stop them is to outright ban the sale of remote control aircraft.

a reply to: Aleister

And in my case it was an example of why they can't be stopped. I was hardly saying take a shotgun to the Eifel Tower and start blasting away.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Aleister

And in my case it was an example of why they can't be stopped. I was hardly saying take a shotgun to the Eifel Tower and start blasting away.

I know, of course that was more of a comment on how to stop them. The only way would be electronic jamming of some sort, like was used at the White House awhile ago (or at least the drone was found on the lawn, so assuming jamming). These things can be dangerous if used as anything than sightseeing, and at a minimum can poke someones eye out.

From what I've read, the incidents are not considered to be connected to the flights over nuclear sites, those were thought to be by environmental activists.

I think the problem here is that we've seen flights over and around the US Embassy and the military museum, without that it could have been considered to be nothing more than someone using tech to see a different angle of the city. It really could have been anyone just having an interest and defying the law, in the same way people scale tall buildings and film themselves doing it, or sneak into closed areas of the underground to poke around.

But, checking out the US Embassy and the military museum puts an entirely different spin on it.

These flights are also at night, making the "curiosity" explanation even less likely.

I think they're obviously right to be concerned. It sounds to me as though someone is attempting to gain intelligence on potential targets. As we don't know the make of the drones, or of any adaptations of the equipment being used, it's hard to say how considerable the threat might be. Several drones now come with night vision too, we should consider that.

I think, given what has happened recently, given the continued threat France and other nations face and given the sites these drones are focusing on, it's entirely right that this should be considered a potential intelligence gathering exercise and likely by a radical group planning something.

All nations have been on the alert for a Mumbai-style event, and this kind of spying on tourist and sensitive locations would suggest association to such a threat - Mumbai started after dark, and that was desperately terrible even without gathering such information about the target sites using this technology.

I think France should be on alert, and I really think other European countries need to start paying more attention to who is flying drones where.

a reply to: Aleister

One actually killed someone in New York City. I'm sure there have been others but that was the most visible of them.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Aleister

One actually killed someone in New York City. I'm sure there have been others but that was the mossy visible of them.

One has already killed someone? Didn't know that, by accident I assume (although....."it was an accident officer, my ex-husband just happened to be walking in front of it when it sped up and I lost control of it"). With more and more of these things taking to the sky (I've got ten hovering outside Anne Hathaway's windows right now, kind of like playing chess but with flyng ghosts) it might get pretty crowded.