Reaper Crashes in Seychelles

Dec. 14, 2011

An unarmed Air Force MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft crashed Tuesday at the Seychelles International Airport on the island of Mahe near the capital Victoria, announced USAF officials in a brief statement. There were no reported injuries. US officials notified the Seychelles government of the mishap and US military and Seychelles civil aviation authorities are coordinating the removal of debris, according to the statement. The airport reopened to normal traffic not long after the crash, it noted. The cause of the incident is under investigation. The Defense Department confirmed the presence of unarmed MQ-9s in the Seychelles in 2009 for use in countering piracy in and around the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

Related Content

Memorial Day Remembrance

May 23, 2025
By AFA Chaplain Maj. Gen. Steven A. Schaick, USAF (Ret.) President John F. Kennedy said, “A nation reveals itself not only by the men (and women) it produces, but also by the men (and women) … it remembers.” Memorial Day...

B-52s Kick Off Bomber Deployment to Spain

May 22, 2025
B-52H Stratofortress bombers have arrived in Spain to kick off a new European deployment as the Air Force looks to make its nuclear-armed fleets more flexible.

Military Spouses Fed Up With PCS Struggles, Survey Says

May 22, 2025
A new survey found that record rates of Active-duty military spouses want to leave the military community, with a large number of them frustrated by the difficulty of finding employment, child care, and reimbursement for moving costs after a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move.

Allvin to Congress: USAF Will Have More Control of New F-47 Fighter

May 22, 2025
The F-47 fighter will be run differently than previous fighter programs and share the same mission systems architecture as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. That means advances in one will fuel advances in the other.

Air Force Conducts Test Launch of Minuteman III ICBM

May 21, 2025
The Air Force tested an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif,. at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time May. 21. The successful test saw the missile equipped with a single reentry vehicle travel more than 4,200 miles to strike a test site near Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall…

Can Spacecraft Sweat? New Tech Could Make Them Reusable

May 21, 2025
Building spacecraft that can survive the heat of reentry by "sweating" a thermally protective layer of gas has been a dream of aerospace engineers for 50 years. Now an Air Force Research Laboratory grant aims to make that a reality.