David Ferguson
Raw Story
July 17, 2013
An unmanned drone aircraft fell from the sky and exploded by a Florida highway on Wednesday morning, snarling traffic and closing the road for the next 24 hours. According to a statement from Florida’s Tyndall Air Force Base, State Highway 98 is closed “as a precautionary measure due to fires resulting from the crash and a small self-destruct charge carried on board the drone.”
“An unmanned Air Force QF-4 drone, assigned here to the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group, crashed on the drone runway during take-off at 8:25 a.m. today. No personnel were injured during the incident,” the report said. “Base and local police and safety officials have closed Highway 98 and are anticipating that it will remain closed for up to 24 hours.”
The stretch of highway — which runs between the town of Mexico Beach and Panama City, Florida — is closed because of the risk of fire in the acres of pine forest around Tyndall AFB, but also because of “a small self-destruct charge carried on board the drone.”