The curious incident of the drone in the night-time has been made a bit less mysterious today, as the Secret Service revealed new details into their investigation—including a confession by the pilot himself. According to the Secret Service, an unnamed employee of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) claimed responsibility for crashing a remote-controlled quadrocopter into a tree on the grounds of the White House.
The yet-unnamed employee reported the incident to his superiors at NGA. He claimed to have been drinking at an apartment near the White House when he decided early Monday morning to fly a friend’s new DJI Phantom drone. He claimed that he then lost control of the drone. Soon after the drone slipped unnoticed over the White House fence, it was spotted flying low over the grounds before it crashed into a tree.
The White House has a radar system to detect incoming aerial threats, but it did not detect the drone, which has the radar cross-section of a large bird at best. According to The New York Times, the Secret Service has been studying ways for the past few years to develop a defense against small drones, which could conceivably carry small explosives or other threats.
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