The loss was valued at $3.8 million by the Air Force.
The failure of the Predator’s ignition control system was attributed to the failure of the power cable joining the two ignition circuits.
“There was no fault found with the operators,” Col. Gregory Schnulo, commander of Springfield’s 178th Fighter Wing, said Wednesday.
Operated remotely from Springfield via satellite by the 162nd Reconnaissance Squadron, the plane’s crew “applied all critical actions procedures and accomplished the appropriate checklists, but determined the aircraft could not successfully return to the air base,” according to the report by Air Combat Command.
It was the base’s first mishap involving a Predator, Schnulo said, since local aircrews began remotely flying the already-iconic drones in February.
Even after the crash, the relatively intact Predator and its guided missile had to be destroyed by an Army recovery team, which also recovered sensitive parts.
The loss of a Predator isn’t uncommon, according to Joseph Trevithick, a military analyst for GlobalSecurity.org.
The Air Force lost 65 Q-1 series aircraft between fiscal-years 2000 and 2011, according to Trevithick. Of those, 12 were lost in fiscal-year 2011 alone.
The sensitive parts of a Predator would include its electro-optical equipment and even its engine, Trevithick wrote in an email.
The local Guard base, located at Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport, is in its first year of flying Predators around the clock on armed reconnaissance missions.
Previously, the base flew the F-16C/D fighter jet — each valued at $18.8 million. Pilots here began learning how to fly the Predator in August 2010.
“We had an older, more mature group of instructor pilots,” Schnulo told the News-Sun in June. “Rather than go try to pursue an F-16 elsewhere, they chose to stay in Springfield and fly the new mission, which has been an outstanding benefit for us.”
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