OPP loses drone designed to find people
Police ground most of its drone fleet while it searches for missing machine
Ontario Provincial Police admit it is anxious to find a missing drone after it flew away during a test flight on Wednesday.
The OPP said an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) flew away at around 2 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon during a test flight in a remote area of Southwold Township, a rural community about a half hour southwest of London, Ont.
"The UAS decided it was done work and took off," said OPP Sergeant Dave Rektor, who described the drone as a "valuable piece" of the OPP's equipment.
The drone was on a test flight after a recent software update when it locked onto unknown GPS coordinates went into a GPS lock at 100 metres in the air. The operator then lost contact with drone.
Fleet grounded
Drones of the same make and model have been grounded across the province while the police look into what went wrong.
"All 11 of those have been grounded," said Rektor. "The OPP does have four other models which are available in the meantime which we'll continue to use and help with other investigations."
Rektor said that police used the drone to search primarily for missing or lost persons, as well as to assist in traffic collision investigations.
"They're definitely used quite extensively by the OPP across the province for a number of other things as well." said Rektor.
Police have been searching an area west of St Thomas for the drone and now officers are asking anyone who may have seen or discovered a drone to contact them.