Runaway Latvian drone found meditating in tree after shutting down nation's skies

The runaway experimental drone that closed Latvia's skies to international flights after it went missing has been found lodged in a tree. At the beginning of this month, Latvia's airspace was all but closed to long-distance flights after the 26kg craft, made by local firm SIA UAVFactory, disappeared on a test flight. Now the …

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

There was no word as to whether a Playmobil figure was at the drone's controls.

Is this - GASP! - the return of Playmobil to El Reg?

[Mark 85]

Re: There was no word as to whether a Playmobil figure was at the drone's controls.

One can only hope for the Playmobil to return. That and perhaps the flight of LOHAN.

Yes, I"m sitting in the Wishful Thinking Department.

[Antron Argaiv]

Re: There was no word as to whether a Playmobil figure was at the drone's controls.

Lester looks down...and smiles, knowingly

[detritus]

Looks like someone inadvertantly found another way for drones to cause infrastructure chaos. Just wait 'til Extinction Rebellion hears about this!

[imanidiot]

Like the whole Gatwick debacle wasn't enough proof of that already?

[detritus]

Well, I posted with that exact event in mind, so I did actually mean 'another' way, as in a drone doesn't even require deploying amidst a heavily-surveilled area such as an airport's flight restriction zone.

[Alister]

It's obviously searching for its prey.

[Chris G]

The dreaded Dronus fugitus expepditus.

( No, I have never studied latin)

[Anonymous Custard]

It's obviously searching for its prey tree.

Once again the well known magnetic attraction between aerial drones and large wooden objects...

[Steve K]

Or

Or pining for the fjords?

[harmjschoonhoven]

Meditate upon the essential condition of being and have a loose wire somewhere are not mutually exclusive.

[A.P. Veening]

But a loose screw is more common ;)

[Muscleguy]

I am reminded of Douglas Adams' Electric Monk from the Dirk Gently books.

[Anonymous Coward]

essential condition of being

unbearable lightness of being, more like...

[Steve K]

Great

Looks like it was the Latvian Special Branch that found it

[PM.]

Re: Great

.. or was it Latvian Special Division ?

[Hull]

Re: Great

Nah, that brought it down.

Icon for exception interrupt.

[JimboSmith]

Re: Great

Surprised they didn't twig where it might be earlier.

Mine's the grey wool one that's seen better days.

[Anonymous Custard]

Re: Great

They got to the root cause of it in the end...

[DJV]

@JimboSmith

They spent too much time barking up the wrong one.

[David 132]

Re: Great

Oh, yew!

[OssianScotland]

Re: Great

Yew should all be ash-amed of these treemendously bad puns. Time to apply the birch?

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Great

Oakay!

[Insert sadsack pun here]

Re: Great

Leaf it out mate.

[Ken Shabby]

Re: Great

Who wood believe it?

[The commentard formerly known as Mister_C]

Of course it was in a tree

Lester will be looking down and smiling.

[Anonymous Coward]

Boy, I would hate to be that company's sales director.

[Anonymous Coward]

A couple of starting points:

Aerial arborialist.

Unmanned tree detector.

[Sgt_Oddball]

They were lucky...

At least got it back. If there was a certain bald youth in the vicinity (usually with a football or kite) I'm sure it would have been consumed whole.

Mines the one with the peanuts in the pockets.

[Neil Barnes]

It's spring, right?

Obviously nesting season.

[martinusher]

Its the fate of all lost model aircraft

The current edition of the AMA (American aeromodellers) journal has two items about lost planes. One is a picture of a competition sailplane that disappeared a couple of years ago that was found recently. It disappeared because after crash landing it was picked up by a teenager who took it home and hid it in the crawl space under their house. This explains one common way that planes disappear -- its difficult to lose a bright yellow 4 meter wingspan plane, you need someone to move it The other piece was an article on using a quadcopter and mapping software to find a lost plane.

This goes to show just out of touch the official world is from real life. That drone is a model. Models get lost. There are all sorts of ways to locate models that are used by amateurs, up to and including GPS tracing and position reporting by cellphone. None involve the closing of a naitonal airspace.

[herman]

Bear Lookout

Even the bears were looking for the UAV: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/high-climbing-bear-caught-on-video-in-northern-ontario-1.5578422

[Anonymous Coward]

fully fuelled before its test flight and had a potential endurance of three days

sorry for being stupid, does it mean that a drone these days can stay in the air for three days non-stop?

[nematoad]

Re: fully fuelled before its test flight and had a potential endurance of three days

"... does it mean that a drone these days can stay in the air for three days non-stop?"

Well apparently this one can. I think the clue is in the fact that it was "refuelled" and not "recharged". Though of course if fitted with photovoltaic cells a drone could stay up for even longer.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: fully fuelled before its test flight and had a potential endurance of three days

> Well apparently this one can.

Apparently this one cannot. although its designers might have hoped otherwise.

[Richard 12]

Re: fully fuelled before its test flight and had a potential endurance of three days

It's a fixed-wing aircraft, so needs very little thrust to maintain altitude.

Some designs have theoretical endurance in the months, when not interrupted by arboreal intersections.

[imanidiot]

Re: fully fuelled before its test flight and had a potential endurance of three days

yes, fixed wing UAVs can stay up for multiple days.