Drone pilot “amazed” to land on deck of Britain’s largest warship without being noticed
Aug 15, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Share:
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this one. The HMS Queen Elizabeth (Ro8) is the Royal Navy’s largest warship. It’s brand new. It cost £3 billion ($3.9 billion) to build. It was only officially named last month, and it’s not even been formally commissioned yet.
The HMS Queen Elizabeth began sea trials on June 26th. During a recent visit to Scotland as part of this tour, a gentleman who is not being named managed to land his drone on it. And he did it completely unnoticed.
The unnamed pilot told The Telegraph…
I was amazed that I was able to land on the aircraft carrier for two reasons, the first being that there was no one about to prevent it from landing although were security police around in small boats who were waving at the drone.
The second reason was more technical. I received a high wind warning as I was videoing up and down the flight deck and my control system advised me to land.
Yeah, I’m pretty amazed, too. I mean, I know it’s not actually out doing its day job yet. And, yes, there’s a website that lets you track her every move. But, still… no security whatsoever? No systems up and running to detect this kind of thing on the ship?
He was not only amazed, but concerned. When he attempted to raise the security issue with local port security, they didn’t seem too bothered. They forwarded him to some heavily armed police he believes were from the Ministry of Defence. He was told that the ship’s crew were all “at dinner ashore”. The officer he spoke to said he would pass it up the chain of command.
It appears he did post images from the flight deck online and was met with some rather harsh criticism. The pilot says that the only law he felt he may be breaking would be flying over the vessel without permission. But other charges may come from the Navy in the future. The images no longer appear to be available.
This was just a harmless drone pilot trying to get some video, and was forced to land due to DJI’s software telling him to. But given some of the things that have been happening with drones recently, it’s pretty scary he was able to land right on the deck with no challenge.
Well, at least he may have the honour of being the first to land a craft on the new ship. Hopefully security will be stepped up a little once she’s in full service.
[via The Telegraph]
Top Image : MoD [45162752] Licensed under OGL v1.0
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Related Posts
The Olympic tennis court is a giant green screen and the Internet has noticed
What’s An Officer To Do? BBC Photographer Arrested While Operating Drone Mid-Flight; Police Land Drone Themselves
Quadriplegic drone pilot wants to make drone flying inclusive and accessible to everyone
Have you ever noticed the Purkinje Shift?
Join the Discussion
DIYP Comment Policy
Be nice, be on-topic, no personal information or flames.
12 responses to “Drone pilot “amazed” to land on deck of Britain’s largest warship without being noticed”
Oof. The queen is gonna be pissed.
On gin I imagine, like her mother. Don’t blame either of them!
Royal Navy were first to land over a month before this muppet. https://youtu.be/zaNlZ4VNM5Q
well thats a security problem….hahaha
That’s bizarre
Ship was docked, radar was off, no one was on the fucking thing. Calm down everyone
Well, a vessel like that should not turn off its radar or any security tools. A vessel like that is on guard 24/7/365. No such thing in the army “we went to lunch so we turned off everything”
It depends on where the ship was when this incident happened. If it hasn’t been officially turned over to the Navy, that is a strong chance that all of the “protection” systems were turned off. If it was in or near port, the radars and other electrical systems could damage electrical devices in the hotels, apartments and other places around town. In the United States, military vessels are not completely armed and brought up to “speed” until they are commissioned as a military vessel. Up to that point, they are still “owned and operated” by the ship building company and the weapons systems and other protections are not fully functioning yet, much less armed. This isn’t really anything to get excited about. And it was just a stunt by a drone pilot that will probably get a lot of scrutiny by the military in the next few months.
I am sure this guy did not here the last of it. Hopefully they would not be too harsh on him. It is possible that this vessel is not yet fully operational. I Googled it but there is no mention of what stage she is in. I would be very surprised if a drone can get so close to such a war machine so you probably right.
Yeah cuz ships never get attacked while they’re docked….
It was a hobby drone not a Russian invasion. What’s your point?
Is this the aircraft carrier that was born not to carry aircraft I wonder, or is that the other one that has yet to be built?
Either way, it is nice to know that it might be able to hold aircraft one day.