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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on May 22, 2012 at 8:17am

Although North Korea was intermittently jamming GPS in the border region between 28 April and 15 May  it is not known if the jammer was operating at the time of the fatal crash.

   Dumbasses.  Relying on GPS signals while right on the border of an "Axis of Evil" country... Stupid!  GPS is NOT meant for reliable positioning, it is only ever supposed to be used as an aid to properly working nav. systems.  The US can and does inject errors into the system whenever they feel like it, and certainly when there is a military objective.  North Korea just tried and failed to test launch a nuclear missile, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if that failure was a result of intentional US GPS error injection.  There's probably somebody still laughing their ass off at that one.

   They're also stupid for flying a 150 kilogram (330 pound) drone.  Obviously they aren't ready to be playing with anything heavier than styrofoam.

   I feel a little sorry for them if the GPS problem was due to intentional errors or the North Koreans spoofed them with fake signals, but if it was simply jammed they have no excuse for this recklessly caused crash.

   I wonder if it was the model with the missile mounted on it?  Really makes you wonder what in the hell they're thinking trying to kill people with this thing when they can't even fly it properly and avoid killing themselves.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on May 22, 2012 at 8:18am

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DeveloperPermalink Reply by R_Lefebvre on May 22, 2012 at 8:32am

There's a blog post about this already.

Jake, that's a little harsh.  Many people died in the early days of manned flight, but without their sacrifice, we wouldn't be where we are today.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on May 22, 2012 at 8:51am

Life is harsh.  Someone died and two people were injured.  Do you think we should just say that's OK?

These idiots were playing with toys they didn't know how to use and were way too dangerous for them.  Honoring them as some sort of bogus heroes instead of calling them out as the dangerous idiots they are will only lead to more people thinking this sort of reckless behavior is acceptable.

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Permalink Reply by Dwgsparky on May 22, 2012 at 9:08am

Jale the guy died doing the job that he loved and was an expert in what he did. He was not in control of the vehicle at the time and he died. dont forget that... he died. MY respects and best wishes have gone to his family, have yours??

 

When a mistake is made or an equipment fault happens we have to learn by the results and make ourselves and our systems better.

As a proffessional automation engineer I understand and respect the work of others... maybe you should do the same. .......Or are you perfect and never make a mistake???

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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on May 22, 2012 at 10:28am

Apparently he wasn't an expert.  Just because some news story calls you an expert doesn't make it so. The results of his "expert" supervision of the craft seem to speak for itself.

Obviously there were many basic errors that must have led to this crash.  Faults are to be expected, and if you knowingly operate a craft in a fashion which allows a simple fault, which you KNOW can easily happen, to kill people... that is clearly reckless behavior.  Whoever was in charge of this is a criminal, not a hero.  They're guilty of reckless endangerment at the least, and most likely (vehicular) manslaughter.  People typically do 7-10 years in prison for this sort of thing.

When people refuse to blame the guilty party and assign responsibility to them the blame ends up being wrongly placed on the tech.  Then we all end up losing freedoms because we refuse to assign proper blame and let existing laws take care of things as they should.

We can count the many errors which must have been present to cause this.  If the operator/supervisor didn't know about these basic safety issues then he's an ignorant fool, but may only be guilty of negligence rather than manslaughter.

The copter should have flown safely without GPS.  The pilot in command should have been able to operate the craft.  The pilot should have taken control.  The copter should have been operated in a safe area.  The operators should have been at a safe distance.  The copter should have had a failsafe or kill switch.  The operator should have ditched/killed the craft long before it endangered life.  They should have had safety gear and/or a secure enclosure to protect them.  The copter should not have been so large and dangerous for this stage of the tech.  They should have had more training.  They should have had the situation awareness to avoid the crashing craft.  So on and so forth.

By not ensuring these conditions were satisfied they acted recklessly.  ALL of them should have been followed and any one of them would have prevented this disaster.  They chose to disregard ALL of them, which is clearly reckless.

Bottom line... they operated a vehicle in a reckless manner that resulted in a death.  That's manslaughter, plain and simple.  If the guy wasn't dead he'd be facing a lengthy prison sentence.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on May 22, 2012 at 10:33am

When a mistake is made or an equipment fault happens we have to learn by the results and make ourselves and our systems better.

"Learning by the results" is not a valid reason for reckless disregard for safety and human life.  Just because you learned a lesson or advanced your tech. does not excuse manslaughter.

This also wasn't one "mistake".  It was a whole series of "mistakes".  When you have control of a situation and you choose NOT to act responsibly it's not a "mistake", it's reckless disregard for safety.  And when someone dies as a result of your reckless disregard it is manslaughter.

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