Hazard Reporting

I wanted to share a story that I heard from an organization that I think is important.

An agency was doing a training mission at night at an event involving a large group of people. The 1st mission went fine and they completed a battery change. The pilot took off with his M30T and started to fly towards the mission area. At some point he received a battery error/warning. The thought was bring the drone back and see what the issue is. The pilot reversed hastily and slowed down prior to entering the LRZ. The pilot landed and had discovered one of the 2 batteries was completely missing. The crews did a cursory search for the battery without success and decided to return in the morning as inclimate weather was coming in and the exercise was ending. The lead pilot returned in the morning to look for the battery. There…

So very frustrated!

Our UAS program is slow to get going as the coordinator of the program is tasked with other duties and the program taking a seat on the backburner in the time being.

I was recently provided access to the County IT Department fleet which includes Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced.

On Monday (3/27) we had a vehicle pursuit which ended up with the vehicle crashing at a Corp of Engineers area near the river at the edge of city limits. The driver fled on foot from the crash.

Our Sheriff Department assisted with the search for the suspect with their vehicle mounted Flir and a K9 track was attempted. Neither found the suspect.

I was contacted around 0200 in regard to if we had access to a thermal drone. I had access to IT's Mavic 2EA.