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On the evening of March 18, the MQ-9 Reaper reconnaissance UAV of the US Air Force, which operated almost on a daily basis near the Russian Kaliningrad region, lost contact and control from the ground in Polish airspace. As a result, the aircraft crashed.
According to the Brigadier General Ireneusz Nowak, inspector in the Polish Air Force, the UAV crashed during a training flight. The UAV took off from a military base in Romania and was supposed to land at the Polish Miroslavets airfield.
According to Novak, the US military in Romania lost control of the MQ9 Reaper around 18:00 local time. After that, they tried to transfer control to the Polish side, but they failed to do so. The area of his possible crash was cordoned off, there were no civilians there. As a result, the drone was found nine minutes after the fall, Novak said.
He added that the investigation of the incident will be handled by the United States with the help of Polish specialists.
In the afternoon of March 18th, there were two two MQ-9 Reaper drones operating in the airspace of Poland, WILEY22 and WILEY33. They both took off from a military airfield in Romania.
During the day, both UAVs faced technical malfunctions. According to the official claims, the crashed drone was WILEY22. There is still no information about the fate of the second MQ-9 with the call sign WILEY33.
Early in the morning on March 19, the Poles closed the airfield from flights and the Polish military department has also suspended MQ-9 flights.
Western media blamed the Russian military for the incident; but the Polish Ministry of Defense denied speculation in the media about the involvement of Russian electronic warfare systems in the incident.
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