Reaper drone spy vehicle crashes in Lincoln County
A remotely piloted, multimillion-dollar Reaper spy plane crashed during a training exercise Wednesday night on public land near Mount Irish in Lincoln County and crews from Nellis Air Force Base have responded to secure the wreckage, base officials said.
No injuries were reported but Nellis officials said they were taking precautions to prevent any possible exposure to people from toxic fumes that could result from smoldering materials of the carbon-fiber airframe at the location, more than 150 miles north of Las Vegas.
"While there were no hazardous materials on the aircraft at the time of the crash, wreckage could present an inhalation hazard to those in the immediate vicinity, were it to smolder or burn," according to a Nellis news release late Thursday.
"On-scene crews are taking all possible safety precautions throughout the investigation and recovery to protect against potential hazards," the news release reads.
Base officials said the MQ-9 Reaper, which wasn’t armed with live munitions, crashed about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday in remote, mountainous terrain about 15 miles northwest of Hiko near the Nevada Test and Training Range.
"Responders are working to determine the condition of the aircraft," base officials said.
The unmanned aircraft went down on Bureau of Land Management land north of Mount Irish but it had been flying in the training range airspace during a U.S. Air Force Weapons School exercise known as the Mission Employment Phase.
The exercise, which runs through Dec. 12, involves pilots who fly fighter and attack jets to test their ability to plan, execute and lead complex missions, including those that involve remotely piloted aircraft, such as Reapers and MQ-1 or RQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles.
Base officials refer to the realistic, air-combat maneuver that began Monday as the Weapons School’s "capstone graduate exercise."
The exercise is conducted at the sprawling training range, described by Air Force public affairs specialists as a "peacetime battlefield" that includes 12,000 square miles of airspace and 2.9 million acres of land containing nearly 2,000 possible targets and realistic threat systems.
The MQ-9 Reaper is one of the nation’s largest remotely piloted aircraft systems equipped with high-tech video and infrared cameras.
It is controlled by a pilot and sensor operator in a ground station and can fire laser-guided Hellfire missiles or drop precision-strike "smart" bombs.
It is used for armed spy plane missions in Afghanistan and is controlled via satellite link from Creech Air Force Base, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and other ground stations in the United States after being launched from airstrips overseas.
The Reaper that crashed Wednesday was assigned to the 57th Wing at Nellis.
According to an Air Force fact sheet, Reapers built in 2006 by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. cost $53.5 million, which includes a package of four aircraft with sensor equipment.
Nellis officials said a board of officers has been convened to investigate the cause of Wednesday’s Reaper crash.
Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.
