On Monday June 11, operators located at the U.S. Naval Air Station at Patuxent River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, lost contact with one of their RQ-4A Global Hawk drones. The drone, on a routine training flight, crashed in an area along the Nanticoke River. According to a report in the Daily Telegraph the drone, which is designated as a Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Drone (BAMS-D), is part of a program at Patuxent River NAS “which has been developing tactics for high-altitude patrols since November 2006.”

The basic dimensions of a Global Hawk are listed as 44 feet in length with a wing span of 116 feet. They can operate up to 30 hours flight time, and up to 11 miles in altitude.  The Global Hawk is built by the Northrop Corporation.

This particular drone came down in a swampy unpopulated area located on Bloodworth Island which is located in the Chesapeake Bay. For a large part of the 20^th century the island was used as a naval gunnery range. Following the crash the U.S. Coast Guard established a safety zone along the Nanticoke River to allow the U.S. Navy to commence a crash investigation.