Drunken off-duty intelligence agency employee crashes drone on White House lawn, ‘uh…whoops!’

Normally, If you’re employed by one of the federal government’s intelligence agencies, then the last thing you do — short of leaking classified info  — is fly a drone over White House grounds, or worse, crash said drone on White House grounds. A recent development in the case of the mysterious drone that suddenly appeared on the President’s lawn at 3 am on January 26, reveals that the pilot was a drunken employee of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the US’s prime source of up-to-the-minute geospatial-intelligence — ouch.

The inebriated pilot — who fortunately for him, remains unnamed — was partying at a nearby apartment when a sudden inspiration urged him take his buddy’s $800 DJI Phantom for a spin in inclement weather. Then, after losing control of the drone, he proceeded to go to sleep. It was not until the following day, after learning from his friends of what occurred, that he confessed before his employer and the secret service.

In process of enacting his drunken antics, the pilot inadvertently revealed a major flaw in the Secret Service’s White House enveloping security, as the radar system in place to detect aerial threats could not detect the drone. The White House’s radar system is seemingly calibrated to detect large threats originating from airplane or missiles, not drones roughly the size of birds.

Incidentally, the Secret Service’s air branch has been developing new methods of stopping and detecting small flying objects, but while it could not disable Monday’s drone, an on-duty officer at the White House had spotted the drone, reports the NY Times. 

The entire fiasco is a tad bit ironic considering the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency collects intel using satellite and aerial imagery — the kind of intel that could realistically originate from drones. An NGA spokesperson did step in to clarify that the employee involved did not work with drones as part of his responsibilities for the agency.

While it’s unclear how the employee will be reprimanded, do consider that the situation could’ve turned out a lot worse for the man had he not taken the initiative to confess. If the Secret Service was hard-pressed to investigate, the agency could have easily subpoenaed the drone’s manufacturer into providing it with the name of the buyer associated with that specific unit’s registration number. Even if his employment is terminated, at least his name has been kept out of the public’s eye.

Source: Ars Technica /NY Times