Unmaned Hermes aerial vehicle crashes after check flight in Cagayan de Oro
A Hermes 900 unmanned aerial vehicle, one of the military assets which was delivered to the Philippine Air Force (PAF) on February 2020, crashed while it was about to land in Lumbia Airport, Cagayan de Oro City on Saturday morning.
Col. Maynard Mariano, PAF spokesman, said no one was hurt and no property was damaged during the incident that occurred around noon.
Mariano said the unmanned aerial vehicle was about to return to Lumbia airport after performing a functional check flight when it crashed in a vegetated area.
"Upon take off, the unmanned aerial vehicle proceeded to five nautical miles east of Lumbia and ascended to 10,000 ft. After finding the functional check flight procedure to be satisfactory, the pilots declared the termination of the test and started to descend 5000ft 1.5 miles east of Lumbia Airport," he said.
"At around 11:46 a.m, communications with the UAV were cut. All emergency procedures were performed and field service representatives were called for troubleshooting," he added.
Mariano said the PAF will find out why the unmanned aerial vehicle crash landed.
It can be recalled that in February 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte led the inspection of newly-delivered air assets of the PAF displayed at the Haribon Hangar at the Clark Air Base in Pampanga.
The air assets Duterte inspected were one C-130H plane, six S70i Blackhawk Utility Helicopters, six A-29B Super Tucanos, six Hermes 900 unmanned aerial vehicles and four Hermes 450 unmanned aerial vehicles. Robina Asido/DMS
