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| Date: | Friday 12 December 2014 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  General Atomics MQ-9A Reaper |
| Owner/operator: | 432nd WG USAF |
| Registration: | 11-4144 |
| MSN: | PB-144 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Afghanistan -
 Afghanistan
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Kandahar Air Base |
| Kandahar Air Base | |
| Investigating agency: | USAF AIB |
Destroyed on purpose after a technical malfunction.
The finding of the Air Combat Command Accident Investigation Board were publicly released on 30th July, 2015. The US$ 14.1miilion aircraft suffered a starter-generator failure. During efforts to recover the aircraft the back-up battery had insufficient voltage to lower the landing gear so the decision was made to deliberately crash into nearby mountainous terrain. The wreckage was not recovered so the exact cause of the starter-generator failure could not be determined.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/19/more-u-s-military-drones-are-crashing-than-ever-as-new-problems-emerge/?noredirect=on
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/drone-crashes/database/
https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/AircraftAccidentReports/Documents/2015/121214_MQ9A_CENTCOM.pdf
https://www.uasvision.com/2015/08/04/mq-9-reaper-accident-report-released/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 20-Jan-2016 09:14 | gerard57 | Added |
| 20-Jan-2016 09:14 | harro | Updated [Aircraft type, ] |
| 10-Mar-2020 20:33 | StokieSteve | Updated [Registration, Cn, Operator, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 10-Mar-2020 20:34 | harro | Updated [Source, Accident report, ] |
| 11-Mar-2020 16:10 | DG333 | Updated [Operator, Operator, ] |
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