Page 8 - EGO Magazine August 2019

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This is fiction Drone
accidents

By Helen Pendry are real,
even though
fatalities in
Wales are
thankfully
still a fiction.
Mid winter. Mid Wales. A military drone on a training
flight has crashed into a hillside holiday park and killed
a woman.

his is fiction. It’s the UAVs flying over Aberparc’s primary at Gatwick airport last year, where
starting point for my school and homes. The Watchkeeper thousands of people were affected by
literary thriller The drone has a mass of 450kg and a ‘payload the airport’s temporary closure. A BBC
Levels, and I made it up. capacity’ of 150kg. It’s not something documentary broadcast on 1 July 2019
But in the time it’s taken you’d want ploughing into your local – Britain’s Next Air Disaster? Drones
Tme to write and publish primary school … or a caravan park. – focused on the threat posed by small previous four years for the impact low school in Wales. When construction
the novel, there have been at least four In June this year, the research and drones to UK airspace and airports. flying had on livestock. Of that total, began, three Plaid Cymru members set
accidents involving drones flown from campaigning organisation Drone The documentary didn’t mention £240,000 was paid to farmers who say fire to the place. Military drone use is increasing, and
Parc Aberporth in Ceredigion. One Wars published a new report on large accidents involving large military drones. their poultry were frightened, that egg Opposition to Aberporth’s drones by with developing technology these UAVs
crashed into trees last June, not far military drone crashes over the past A crash in west Wales – even when the production was hampered, and that groups such as The Drone Campaign are also becoming more autonomous. In
from the local primary school. Another decade. Accidents Will Happen details crash happens near a primary school on animals trampled each other to death. Network Cymru focuses on their use the future, drones may be programmed
disappeared over the sea in February over 250 crashes, across the globe, of sports day – isn’t as newsworthy as the Wales’ land, sea and air has a long in overseas wars and in support of to choose targets based on their own
2017. large unmanned aerial vehicles, with closure of a major airport. And the voices history of being used by the MoD for actions by the US and other countries. surveillance data and then decide
The unmanned aerial vehicles most of them (178) operated by the of west-Wales parents – at least one of war training. In the 1930s, for example, It decries the accidental killing of ‘execution paths’ for themselves.
(UAVs) tested at Aberporth are called United States. Five Watchkeepers have whom made complaints about drones there was the Llŷn bombing school, and civilians in drone strikes, and questions Shrouded in secrecy and tested in west
Watchkeepers and were originally crashed in the UK since 2014, and as flying over the school a year before the there’s the vast and still-used military targeted, extra-judicial assassinations. Wales, it can be easy to forget that the
developed by the Israeli company many as nine crashed (accidentally) in accident in 2017 – have been dismissed. training area at Mynydd Epynt in the According to a report by the All Party private arms companies who develop
Elbit Systems. Each one is worth £6 Afghanistan between 2009 and 2013. As well as drones, rural Wales also Brecon Beacons. Often, these areas Parliamentary Group on Drones (July and operate these military drones
million. A military inquiry after the Drone accidents are real, even though contends with low-flying military jets. were chosen after plans to use similar 2018), such use could be putting are paid with large amounts of public
2017 crash stated that the Ministry fatalities in Wales are thankfully still a In some places, like the Dyfi Valley, locations in England were met with British military personnel in danger of money. It’s important that we keep an
of Defence (MoD) and Thales (a fiction. there can be six jets a day flying over in strong opposition, and that opposition prosecution for the deaths of civilians in eye on them. They’ll be keeping an eye
French multinational and the aircraft’s The mainstream media, however, quick succession and scaring livestock, was registered and accepted. In 1936, drone strikes and for being complicit in on us.
operators) did not fully understand how continues to focus its attention on young children and visitors to the area opposition to the RAF bombing school alleged war crimes.
Watchkeeper worked. the potentially dangerous use of small who don’t expect to be buzzed by a on the Llŷn peninsula involved a The report also stated that the drone
That isn’t a reassuring conclusion drones. It pays little attention to crashes military aircraft while out walking in the deputation representing half a million situation was ‘deeply problematic’ Helen Pendry is the author of
for those who live under the flight path, involving large military UAVs. hills. In 2018, Forces Network reported Welsh protestors. But the UK Prime because of the lack of oversight, while The Levels (Parthian). She lives
because these drones are big – as big as Small drones, of course, were that the MoD had paid £1.9 million Minister, Stanley Baldwin, refused to almost every request for information under the Mach Loop.
a car according to residents who’ve seen responsible for the disruption caused in compensation to farmers over the hear any arguments against siting the was ‘categorically dismissed’.

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