Drone Incidents

Near-misses, crashes, airspace violations, and arrests — when drone flights go wrong.

237

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Reporters on beat

Oct 9

Last updated

The nose of an Antonov An-124-100M cargo plane on an airport apron, with the words Be Brave Like Kharkiv painted on the fuselage.

Leipzig Drone Bomb

Leipzig Drone Bomb Plot Ran Three Drones And A Second Explosive

A third drone and 50 grams of suspected hexogen turned up beside Leipzig/Halle Airport. Investigators say the plot was far larger than the public knew.

Haye KestelooAug 29

A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter hovers low over a forest lake, lowering an orange Bambi Bucket into the water as rotor wash sprays mist across the surface.

Drone Incidents

FBI Task Force Forced Down Hobby Drones Over Spokane Wildfires

An FBI-led counter-drone unit built for the FIFA World Cup detected 41 unauthorized drones over the Spokane wildfires in four days and used electronic countermeasures to force them down. No pilots were arrested; the cases went to the FAA with fines of up to $100,000 each.

Haye KestelooAug 20

Low flames and heavy smoke burn through a ponderosa pine forest along the shoulder of a two-lane road, with the sun glowing orange through the haze.

Drone Incidents

Drone Pilots Ground Spokane Firefighting Aircraft 26 Times

Civilian drones entered restricted airspace over the Spokane County wildfires at least 26 times in three days, repeatedly grounding helicopters and air tankers while three uncontained fires burned homes below. Two operators have been cited, and the cases have been referred to the FAA.

Rafael SuárezAug 4

Early DJI Investor Selling $108M London Property Portfolio Including Iconic Sky Pool Apartments

Counter-Drone

Cellebrite Locks Down SkySafe as Its Only Drone Forensics Partner, Betting Big on Counter-Drone Data

Cellebrite has become the exclusive digital forensics partner to SkySafe, expanding a relationship the two companies first built out through Cellebrite’s March 2026 acquisition of SCG Canada. The deal, announced Tuesday, ties Cellebrite’s mobile-device extraction platform directly into SkySafe’s drone detection and airspace intelligence feeds, giving investigators a single workflow that spans what

Haye KestelooJul 8

Russia

IISS Report Names Real Russian Drone Incidents and Phantom Ones, and the Difference Is the Story

A London think tank has assembled the fullest picture yet of the drone incursions that rattled European airbases, airports and nuclear sites since late 2024, and its central claim is serious: Russian intelligence ran a coordinated surveillance campaign launched from vessels in Moscow’s sanctions-dodging “shadow fleet.” The 144-incident dataset is real, the pattern is unsettling,…

Haye KestelooJul 2

Drone Incidents

Shield AI V-BAT Severs Romanian Officer’s Fingers as Reuters Documents 50-Plus Crashes

A Romanian Navy official lost two fingers and fractured a third on May 12 when her hand was caught in the propeller of a Shield AI V-BAT drone during a training exercise on a boat off the Texas coast. Romania’s Ministry of National Defence confirmed the injury to Reuters, which reported it Thursday as part…

Haye KestelooJun 6

Drone Incidents

One Drone Empties a NATO Capital

The trigger was a single radar signature picked up over Belarus, with characteristics matching an unmanned aerial vehicle. The drone

Rafael SuárezMay 23

Drone Incidents

Solar Impulse 2 Crashes Into Gulf After Skydweller Conversion

The aircraft that once made aviation history by circumnavigating the globe on sunlight alone is now at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Solar Impulse 2, the record-setting solar plane built by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, crashed during an autonomous test flight on May 4 after losing power. No one was on board,…

Rafael SuárezMay 13

Drone Incidents

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