Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Mark Weiss of Potomac, Maryland, former American Airlines pilot, sees danger in increasing use of drones

 


POTOMAC, Md. (WUSA) --- The crash of a $100 million military drone on Maryland's Eastern Shore Monday is a reminder that congress wants more unmanned aerial drones in the American sky, and has ordered the federal Aviation Administration to promulgate rules to allow that to happen quickly. 

"I think there is an inevitability that they are going to be a part of our everyday life," said Mark Weiss, a former American Airlines pilot who now leads the civilian aviation team at The Spectrum Group, a Washington-based consulting agency.

Americans recognize the unmanned drones as the military devices used to track and kill terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. One was used as a launch platform for missiles that killed al Qaeda's number two leader in Pakistan last week.

Seeing a huge market in law enforcement agencies in the United States, defense contractors lobbied congress to permit their use in American airspace. It worked, and the industry is preparing for huge sales within the next several years.

Airline pilots, though have expressed concern about the safety of these unmanned vehicles operating in American airspace shared by passenger planes and cargo flights.

"They want those people to be trained to the same level of safety and security as current pilots are for airlines in the United States; that they meet the same qualifications, the same level of training, and the public should have the same expectations of somebody flying a drone as they would for flying a commercial airplane," Weiss told 9News Now.

Those operating drones can be hundreds, or thousands of miles away.

"They're not as qualified to make decisions because they don't have that level of experience. They don't have the training. If something were to go awry, or if they were placed in a situation where they have to make decisions based upon experience, based upon technology, based upon training ( they would not be as prepared)," Weiss said.

In addition to training for the operators of drones, pilots worry about the security of the machines that are not operated by human beings who are in the plane, and fear they could be hijacked by computer hackers who could remotely seize control.

"Today, we have hardened cockpit doors. We have air marshals, FFDOs, federal flight deck officers on board aircraft.

"It's very difficult for somebody on board an aircraft to take over an airplane. The question comes up as to what level of security is there now, and is going to be there in the future, for somebody in the future to hijack a drone, being able to take over that drone, and use that as a weapon of mass destruction, as we saw on Nine-11," Weiss said in a Monday evening interview.

"Drones come in various sizes. You're talking about something as small as a small bird, but you're also talking about something like the one that recently crashed that was the size of of, basically, a 737, which is a jet airliner, so they can cause a tremendous amount of havoc if you were to bring them into a building, if you were to hit another airplane with that.

"If somebody hijacks the frequency and hijacks that drone and operates it remotely, that's a situation that we have to be critical of," Weiss said.

Story and video:   http://wusa9.com

U.S. Coast Guard Releases Audio Of Bogus Sandy Hook Distress Call


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The Commanding Officer of the US Coast Guard station at Sandy Hook describes the search launched after the agency received a call of an explosion on board a boat off the New Jersey coast. The media briefing took place on Sandy Hook in the evening of June 11, 2012, shortly after a massive deployment of emergency personnel was called off and an investigation began into whether the initial call had been a hoax. 

EMS and rescue workers prepare to leave staging area near U.S. Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook, after waiting for the arrival of possible victims of a reported boat explosion June 11, 2012. Hours after the report came in, the Coast Guard was unable to locate any damaged boat or any passengers.


 A medevac helicopter takes off from the staging area near U. S. Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook, after waiting for the arrival of possible victims of a reported boat explosion June 11, 2012. Hours after the report came in, the Coast Guard was unable to locate any damaged boat or any passengers.


Six helicopters from various rescue agencies wait on the ground at Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook after a late afternoon report of an explosion aboard a boat 17 miles off Sandy Hook June 11, 2012. Hours after the report came in, the Coast Guard was unable to locate any damaged boat or any passengers.



  June 11, 2012



 EMS and rescue workers prepare to leave staging area near U.S. Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook, after waiting for the arrival of possible victims of a reported boat explosion June 11, 2012. Hours after the report came in, the Coast Guard was unable to locate any damaged boat or any passengers.


Six helicopters from various rescue agencies wait on the ground at Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook after a late afternoon report of an explosion aboard a boat 17 miles off Sandy Hook June 11, 2012. Hours after the report came in, the Coast Guard was unable to locate any damaged boat or any passengers.



 A Coast Guard rescue helicopter flies over an empty area of the Atlantic Ocean approximately 10 miles south-southeast of Sandy Hook after a late afternoon report of an explosion aboard a boat 17 miles off Sandy Hook June 11, 2012. Hours after the report came in, the Coast Guard was unable to locate any damaged boat or any passengers. 


 EMS and rescue workers wait on the dock of U.S. Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook for the arrival of possible victims after a boat explosion was reported 17 miles off the coast of Sandy Hook June 11, 2012. Hours after the report came in, the Coast Guard was unable to locate any damaged boat or any passengers.
 (Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger)


Monday, June 11, 2012 
9:20 PM
Heather L. Rohan Follow U.S. Coast Guard Chief warrant officer Troy Loining addresses the media after officials were called out for a reported boat explosion 17 miles off the coast of Sandy Hook June 11, 2012.
 

The Coast Guard is offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of whoever made a fake distress call reporting an explosion and sinking of a yacht off the New Jersey coast. 

 The call Monday claimed there had been an blast aboard the yacht Blind Date and that 21 people aboard, including seven who had been injured, had taken to life rafts off Sandy Hook.

The Coast Guard said a later call reported that three people had died.

The Coast Guard joined by law enforcement marine units launched a major search and rescue operation, but officials later determined the call was a hoax when they spotted no wreckage.

"More than 200 first responders assembled mass casualty receptions areas in Newark, and Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook, N.J., preparing to receive the reported injured passengers," said Cmdr. Kenneth Pierro, of Coast Guard Sector New York.

Making a false distress call is a federal felony with a maximum penalty of five to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and reimbursement for the cost of the search.

Last year, the Coast Guard and other state and local agencies responded to more than 60 suspected hoax calls in the northern New Jersey, New York City and Hudson River region, officials said.

Anyone with information regarding this and any other false distress calls is asked to contact the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service at 646-872-5774 or 212-668-7048. Tipsters are promised anonymity.

Source:   http://www.philly.com
 
SANDY HOOK — The Coast Guard is investigating a possible tie between Monday afternoon’s purported mayday call off the Sandy Hook coast and a similar incident from almost a year ago to the date that was ultimately ruled a hoax.

“We are actively looking in to that whether there is any connection to last year,” Coast Guard Capt. Gregory Hitchen said this morning during a press conference in New York. “It’s my understanding the voice is similar but not necessarily alike.”

Two calls, the first at 4:20 p.m. Monday afternoon, said a yacht, called the Blind Date, had sunk 17 miles off the coast following an on-board explosion that killed three people and severely burned several others; 21 others on board the yacht had made onto life rafts.

Both calls Monday came in over VHF channel 14, a marine-designated frequency.

The Coast Guard began to suspect a possible ruse following the second call, during which the caller changed several details pertaining to the alleged incident, most prominently that three had been killed in the explosion.

The caller also said he was still on board the Blind Date, when during the first he had mentioned that all 21 on board had escaped onto life rafts and that just seven had been injured.

About 200 emergency personnel and dozens of rescue vehicles from multiple agencies and jurisdictions were quickly deployed and combed nearly 650 nautical square miles for about three hours following the distress calls. The caller said that the yacht’s crew could not send a GPS positioning because the boat had lost power, the Coast Guard said.

Once the Coast Guard ascertained that there was no oil slick and no debris in the area the boat was supposedly sailing, agency officials started actively looking into possibility of a hoax.

On June 14 last year, the Coast Guard initiated a similarly fruitless 600-square-mile sea and air search following a pre-dawn distress call from a supposed 33-foot sailboat named the Courtney Lynn with four people on board that was taking on water just east of Naval Weapons Station Earle in the Leonardo section of Middletown. The call turned out to be false.

Hitchen said the Coast Guard reached out to registered owners of a number of boats called the Blind Date. According to federal databases, there are Blind Dates hailing from ports in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland and Connecticut, among others.

None of those of those boat owners reported being in the vicinity, Hitchen said.
A Coast Guard spokesman this morning said that Monday’s rescue effort had cost an estimated $88,000, but that that figure could rise significantly.

The Coast Guard said making a false distress call is a federal felony with a maximum penalty of five to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and reimbursement to the Coast Guard for the cost of performing the search.

The Coast Guard this morning increased the reward from $1,000 to $3,000 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person responsible for making the false distress call Monday afternoon.

Related coverage:
Coast Guard reveals second call in possible hoax boat explosion, increases reward for suspect
Was it a hoax? Report of Sandy Hook boat explosion not yet confirmed
Boat explosion reported off coast of Sandy Hook
Reports of sinking sailboat at Sandy Hook a possible hoax, officials say