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In early September, a Portuguese Air Force drone crashed in Alcácer do Sal. Now, after just over a month, another Air Force drone crashed in the Beja area.
The drone was conducting a test flight when it crashed in the city of Alentejo, but without causing any damage.
Air Force drone crashed in Beja
A drone of the Portuguese Air Force (FAP) crashed this Thursday in Beja, while conducting test flights. The team was operating from the Alentejo city base when it fell but did not cause damage. According to the Air Force, the drone suffered a "forced landing" and flights were suspended.
The Diário de Notícias had access to a flight log, which indicates that the drone left the Beja base and began to lose altitude at about 23 kilometers, near the EN2, west of the Odivelas dam. It all happened this Thursday, October 15 at 3:30 pm.
OGASSA VTOL drone of the Portuguese Air Force
An official source from the FAP explained to DN that:
An unmanned aircraft on a training mission, operating from Air Base No. 11 in Beja, made a forced landing this afternoon near the Odivelas Dam, without putting the population or the home at risk.
This flight, inserted in the certification and validation flights of the operational requirements of the fixed wing configuration UAS, was aimed at testing the precision parameters of the navigation system and carrying out a test of the aircraft's resistance. During the same, there was a failure in the propulsion system, which caused the interruption of the mission, requiring the identification of an uninhabited area to carry out the forced landing.
The circumstances in which this occurred are being investigated by the Central Commission of Investigation of the Air Force (COCINV) and the operations of these aircraft suspended.
Drone cost about 375 thousand euros
This was one of 12 VTOL (vertical take-off and landing, or vertical take-off and landing) drones that the FAP bought for 4.5 million euros for forest surveillance, especially in the most critical period of fires. In total, each of these drones costs about 375 thousand euros.
We recall that of the total, only 4 of these drones were operational, due to 'technical difficulties'. The particularity of this Air Force equipment is that it is capable of rising and landing vertically.
The Portuguese Navy also recently bought a model of these drones, for 858 thousand euros, but it does not work.
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