U.S. drone forced into emergency landing after losing contact with base

An unmanned U.S. MQ9 Reaper drone lost communication with base while carrying out a planned practice flight on Monday near the Polish Air Force 12th Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Base near Mirosławiec.

The General Command of the Armed Forces said the aircraft was forced into emergency landing in a secured, forested, uninhabited area near Mirosławiec.

The landing area was secured and the Military Police were looking into the incident, the general command added on Monday.

Poland's Air Force Inspector, Gen. Ireneusz Nowak, said on Tuesday afternoon that the drone was to perform test landing and take-off systems. He added the machine had been operated remotely by a team back in Romania.

"Frankly speaking, we've had a quite stressful, sleepless night here at the command," he said.

Nowak added the aircraft had been located nine minutes after the forced landing and that it did not have any munitions on board.

Gen. Nowak assured that all procedures binding in such situations had been followed. "The police, fire service, local authorities, and most importantly, the Military Police, were all notified. The area of the likely forced landing of the aircraft was secured," he said. "Everything was under control."

Polish media speculated whether GPS signal interference could have caused the incident. "I can tell you that, at first glance, it wasn't about the GPS because - even though autonomously and in the so-called backup mode - the aircraft had been following the originally planned flight course.

The General Atomics MQ9 Reaper is an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems primarily for the United States Air Force as well as the Royal Air Force.