Date:	Monday 4 February 2019
Time:	10:15
Type:	DJI Matrice 100
Owner/operator:	Humberside Fire & Rescue Service
Registration:	Unregistered
MSN:	M02DC105020008
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Barmston Drain, off Clough Road, Hull, Humberside -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Aerial patrol
Departure airport:	Oak Road Playing Fields, Hull, Humberside
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities

Narrative:
AAIB investigation to DJI Matrice 100, UAS, registration n/a: Struck overhanging branches, in a drainage system near Clough Road, Hull, 4 February 2019. The AAIB Final Report was published on 9 May 2019, and the following is the summary from it:

"The drone operator was tasked to undertake a search of a drainage system in the Hull area for a missing person. After the setup and the pre-flight checks, the drone was flown to the search area over the water. As the drone approached the water, the Collision Avoidance System started to activate and climbed the drone away from the water. The operator did not correct the flightpath in time to prevent the drone contacting some branches overhanging the drainage system and the drone fell into the water.

The drone operator considered that he had agreed to fly too close to the water and trees in order to carry out the search. As a result, the organisation has changed the risk assessment for such searches to state that flight will not take place below 10 metres when over water."

Additional: According to a contemporary local newspaper report ("Hull Daily Mail" 7 June 2019):

"A drone brought in during the search for missing student Libby Squire crashed into the water after hitting trees, a report has revealed. Libby, 21, disappeared in the early hours of February 1 after a night out with friends. She was last seen on CCTV at a bench on Beverley Road close to her home in Wellesley Avenue.

An extensive police search and investigation was launched the same day and in the coming weeks in a bid to find her. Water rescue teams, search helicopters and dog handlers were all deployed but tragically, Libby’s body was recovered from the Humber Estuary, around 20 miles from Grimsby Docks, just over six weeks after her disappearance, on Wednesday, March 20.

Emergency services used drones during the search and now an Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) report has revealed one of them crashed into Barmston Drain.

On February 4, marine unit officers were seen searching the drain using inflatable vessels while some officers were wading through the water. The drain runs under Beverley Road, nearby Oak Road playing fields and the River Hull, which became a focal point in a hunt for Libby.

It is not clear who the drone operator was as Humberside Police does not currently have an in-house drone operator but it has previously used one operated by Humberside Fire and Rescue Service".

The search for Libby Squire was the largest missing person search in the history of Humberside Police. In the days following Squire's disappearance, her parents, Russell and Lisa Squire, made a public appeal for information and for her return. More than 100 police officers and staff searched for evidence, while specialist teams searched nearby bodies of water, including the River Hull and the Beverley and Barmston Drain.

Libby Squire's body was found by a fisherman in the Humber Estuary almost two months after she went missing, on 20 March. The body was so severely decomposed that it was not possible to determine the cause of death. On 24 October, while still imprisoned for previous sexual and burglary offences, 24-year-old Pawel Relowicz was charged with the rape and murder of Squire.

On 11 February 2020, after six days of deliberation, the jury found Relowicz guilty of both the rape and murder of Squire, unanimously on the charge of rape and by a majority of 11 to one on the charge of murder. The following day, 12 February, Relowicz was sentenced at the same court to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 27 years for Squire's murder. He was sentenced to a concurrent term of 18 years' imprisonment for her rape

1. AAIB Final Report: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5f4679ffd3bf7f5d7d18a5d1/DJI_Matrice_100_UAS_05-19.pdf
2. https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/drone-crashed-barmston-drain-libby-2953621
3. https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/crime/search-missing-hull-student-libby-squire-enters-fourth-day-coastguard-and-fire-and-rescue-services-join-hunt-139073
4. https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/story/2019-02-04/police-concern-for-missing-hull-student-libby-squire/
5. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-47403280
6. https://www.humberside.police.uk/news/libby-squire-more-details-our-search-so-far
7. https://www.dji.com/uk/support/product/matrice100
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Libby_Squire
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverley_and_Barmston_Drain

Weed Screen on the Beverley & Barmston Drain, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. This screen is situated at the point where the drain joins the River Hull at Wincolmlee.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
28-Jun-2021 21:33	Dr. John Smith	Added
16-Aug-2024 06:48	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Nature, Source, Embed code, Narrative, Category, ]