‘Brazen’ bald eagle assault sends authorities drone to watery grave

For the reason that morning time of drones, a aloof war has been raging, and drones are losing. A Michigan bald eagle didn’t take kindly to the Michigan Division of Atmosphere, Abundant Lakes, and Vitality (EGLE, appropriately) operating a drone in its territory final month. 

In step with a Thursday assertion from EGLE, drone pilot Hunter King, an environmental quality analyst, changed into once flying the $950 Phantom 4 Pro Developed drone to investigate shoreline erosion alongside Lake Michigan on July 21. He had called the drone assist after a rapid flight when the eagle “launched an airborne assault.”

King witnessed the aftermath when he saw the eagle flying away and the drone missing. “It changed into once esteem a extraordinarily unsuitable curler coaster walk,” King said of what he saw on the drone-monitoring video show screen. A pair of birdwatchers nearby confirmed the eagle’s drone kill.

Regardless of intensive searches, the drone changed into once now not recovered. Flight records confirmed it took a nosedive 150 toes offshore into the wintry waters of Lake Michigan. 

“Its flee straight away dropped from 22 mph to 10. Internal a half of-second the flight epic reveals the foundation of downward spiral alongside with ‘excessive spinning’ warnings,” EGLE said in recounting the drone’s final moments. The drone also warned that one of its propellers had been torn off.

EGLE is left to make investments about what may presumably maybe presumably also merely need brought about the assault, that can presumably maybe presumably also had been territorial or may presumably maybe presumably also merely had been a mistake if the eagle thought the drone may presumably maybe presumably even be fit to be eaten. 

“EGLE’s drone group is brooding about steps to diminish the chance of a repeat assault, in conjunction with presumably the usage of “skins” or a bunch of designs on the plane to attain them watch much less esteem seagulls,” the group reported.

That is now not the finest drone to possess fallen injurious of the talons of an eagle. Wedge-tailed eagles in Australia took down a set of unmanned aerial vehicles operated by a mining firm. Police within the Netherlands had been having a leer into the usage of eagles to snatch unwelcome drones out of the air.

The Michigan Division of Pure Sources weighed in on whether the eagle may presumably maybe presumably even be cited for its act of vandalism. “Sadly, there’s nothing we can produce,” a spokesperson told EGLE. “Nature is a merciless and unforgiving mistress.”