Drone lands in tree at White House - Updates included

[marym625]

Last edited Mon Jan 26, 2015, 01:47 PM - Edit history (3)

Happened early this morning and is still being investigated

Police, fire and other emergency vehicles swarmed around the White House in the pre-dawn hours, with several clustered near the southeast entrance to the mansion. The White House was dark and the entire perimeter was on lockdown until around 5 a.m., when pass holders who work in the complex were allowed inside.

"There is a device that has been recovered by the Secret Service at the White House,'' said press secretary Josh Earnest. "The early indications are that it does not pose any sort of ongoing threat to anybody at the White House.''

More at link
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Device-Found-on-White-House-Grounds-289756051.html

Update - "quad-copter drone"
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/small-drone-crashes-white-house-complex-origin-unclear-28486887

http://cbs4indy.com/2015/01/26/secret-service-says-quad-copter-drone-crashed-on-white-house-complex/

More updates 11:45am CST

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/01/26/sleep-well-mr-president-the-threat-of-a-drone-attack-at-the-white-house-is-very-small/

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/26/politics/white-house-device-secret-service/

[HipChick]

1. This is unreal...

[marym625]

2. yep.

Truly is.

[belzabubba333]

3. someone got their kite treed..... all joking aside this is really serious

[marym625]

5. It may be nothing

And obviously, if this was meant to do any damage, it failed. But the foreshadowing is pretty frightening. Maybe that was the damage it was meant to cause

[winter is coming]

6. A drone at the WH? I wonder who was getting married. n/t

[Autumn]

30. I see what you did there

[merrily]

7. This drone apparently posed no threat. That drones can apparently reach the WH, however,

is not so meaningless. Hopefully, this incident, like others that preceded it, will cause the people in charge of security to think a bit harder.

[marym625]

8. I wonder if was meant to cause fear

Not with the President necessarily but with the American people

[merrily]

10. Dunno, but I hope they figure out how to keep all drones away from the WH.

[marym625]

13. I hope they just stop with all the drone stuff altogether

But I would be living in a fantasy world to think that would ever happened.

We're living in an age where protection is almost impossible. Too many ways to attack. I hope they are able to protect the White House, too. Scary stuff.

[HipChick]

9. No Motion detectors on lawn?

[merrily]

15. Motion detectors on the lawn may not be sensitive to flying objects.

This one landed on the lawn and apparently was not designed to do damage. If one designed to explode landed on the White House......

[jberryhill]

27. If they want to chase every bird and squirrel

[BlueStreak]

14. Unlike the drones the WH occupant prefers to use.

[marym625]

20. Thank you!

Was waiting for someone to say this.

[GummyBearz]

11. Its the...

RUSSIANS

[marym625]

16. At least that's a familiar adversary

Kidding.

[JaneyVee]

12. Probably remote control helicopter.

[marym625]

18. nope

They confirmed it's a drone

[Autumn]

31. It sounds like an Amazon delivery.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2599405/emerging-technology/amazons-efforts-to-test-drones-for-package-delivery-gain-support.html

[marym625]

35. Ha!

Good one!

[marym625]

21. or did you mean what it is?

I guess my lack of knowledge and age are showing. I was thinking a toy. It was a "quad-copter drone."

[JHB]

24. In other words, most likely an expensive toy...

"Quad copter" is just the type (like "sedan" or "pickup truck" for cars), and there are dozens of types ranging from hand-sized toys to larger ones that run a few thousand dollars and carry professional camera rigs (or, if Dominos gets its way, pizzas).

We'll see what they find out.

[marym625]

33. Thanks! :-) n/t

[jberryhill]

29. They are pretty much toys

The phrase "quad copter drone" doesn't convey anything with particularity.

Here's one you can pick up for around 30 bucks:

[marym625]

34. hmm.

They should call it something else if it's a toy. But I guess that kind of toy could be made into something not very toy-like.

Thank you

[jberryhill]

38. All "drone" means is "radio controlled flying thing"

Whether it is a palm-sized toy or a flying death platform, the word "drone" seems to have taken over from the much less sexy "radio controlled flying thingie."

[marym625]

39. Ah!

I like the flying thingie! Or RCFT. They could be called REFUCT.

I crack myself up.

Thank you for clarifying for me. I never looked it up. Just made an assumption as to what exactly they were from the articles about what we're doing with them

[lpbk2713]

17. Any empty vials or aerosol containers on board?

[Raine1967]

19. AP reporting it was a quadcopter.

Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary says the device was a quadcopter and was about 2 feet in diameter. A quadcopter is an unmanned aircraft that is lifted by four propellers.

Leary says the quadcopter was flying at a very low altitude before it crashed on the southeast side of the executive mansion around 3:08 a.m. Monday.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WHITE_HOUSE_LOCKDOWN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

maybe something like this? http://boingboing.net/2013/06/12/hubsan-x4-quadcopters-tiny-ch.html

If it were during the day, I would say it's probably just someone mucking around the area, that it happened at such an hour of the morning is a bit concerning.

I have seen these a lot more lately used by people just wanted to film things. I have seen them on the National Mall on a few occasions.

[marym625]

22. Thanks for this.

I'm nowhere near familiar with this stuff as I should be. I read the update that talks about this (I had already put it in the OP) but I had no idea what that meant exactly.

Thanks again!

[Raine1967]

41. Glad to help!

It's just strange at the time that it happened.

[HipChick]

26. You can purchase these from Amazon...hopefully that one has some fingerprints

[Raine1967]

42. I was thinking the same thing.

There are murmurs that they may be closer to finding the people behind this.

[HipChick]

44. Someone has come forward....self-reported on CNN

The person operating the drone that crashed on the White House grounds called the U.S. Secret Service Monday morning to "self-report" their involvement in the incident.

The individual was interviewed by Secret Service agents and has been fully cooperative, Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said in a statement Monday afternoon. The Secret Service locked down the White House shortly after 3 a.m. after an officer on the south grounds of the White House spotted the drone, described as a two-foot wide "quad copter," flying above the White House grounds before crashing on the southeast side of the complex. The officer saw the drone flying at a very low altitude.

"Initial indications are that this incident occurred as a result of recreational use of the device," Leary said.

The Secret Service will continue to investigate the incident through "corroborative interviews, forensic examinations and reviews of all other investigative leads," Leary said.

[CK_John]

23. The WH needs a protective clear dome.

[kwassa]

25. no, Patriot missles to shoot these down!

[CK_John]

28. Think of the jobs, a good frequency jamer might work for a while.

[jberryhill]

40. Not really

Unless you also want to jam GPS in that vicinity as well.

A lot of consumer drones can be programmed to execute a flight path by GPS and will do so without active radio control input.

It's a built-in function of several consumer models which have a "return to home" feature in order to get back where it started when the battery starts running low.

[marym625]

36. like a gigantic "cone of silence"

At least it would still be transparent.

[CK_John]

32. At 3 am, I doubt it was kids playing around.

[marym625]

37. Yeah, me too n/t

[Bandit]

43. A good way for the right wing to send out their anthrax instead of through the mail..

Maybe a trial run....

[marym625]

45. I don't know

But I wouldn't put anything past some on the right.