Well, then. With Navy MQ-8B Firescout drones doing everything from violating the airspace restrictions around Washington DC to crashing around the world from Libya to Afghanistan, it seems that the Navy has grounded the little helicopter drones indefinitely.
The grounding comes after a Firescout went down on March 30 in the ocean off the coast of West Africa. The little chopper made multple landing approaches to the ship it was flying from but was unable to get aboard so it ditched, according to the Navy. Apparently the little chopper was banged up, but he might be salvagable This crashed was followed on April 6 when an unmanned helo -- though to be a firescout -- went down in Afghanistan. The Afghan crash ruined the party for the rest of the Firescout fleet, with the Navy issuing a ban on MQ-8B flights that same day.
So sad. The poor Firescouts were set to have some real fun soon.
Via Flight.
