Lost Plane: The Bermuda-wheat field
The Bermuda Triangle is famous for the eerie disappearances
of planes and boats over the years (allegedly). Outside of Whitby, close to a village called
Sneaton, it would seem that a wheat field has somehow managed to acquire the
same mysterious ability!
Resolution UAV Services was contacted by a local remote
control plane pilot in distress. He had
crash landed in a wheat field and this plane had supposedly disappeared…
Eager to assess our ‘Search and Rescue’ capabilities, we agreed that
we would join the search for the missing plane.
Further discussion with the pilot lead to the understanding that
we were looking for a white delta wing with a wingspan of roughly 1.5m, that
had crashed somewhere on the other side of a manure heap in the ‘Bermuda’-wheat
field.
The pilot stated that he and a friend had spent over 2 hours
looking for the plane in the 40,950m2 (10.1 Acre) field. But the elbow height wheat and contours of the
land made it impossible to see from a distance. To further restrict proceedings, the searchers
were also reluctant to leave the tractor tracks for fear of damaging the
farmer’s crop.
After arrival at the field at which the plane was lost (and
about 5 minutes to set up the UAV and ground station) it took Resolution UAV Services
approximately 3 minutes and 30 seconds to locate the remote control plane. To
make things even better the plane had crashed very close to a tractor track,
meaning that minimal damage to crops was caused during the retrieval of the aircraft.
Ground Search Party – 2 Hours+, No Result
UAV – 3 minutes 30 seconds, Plane Located and Retrieved