USAF UAV Flown Outside of Restricted Airspace for SAR

[sardak]

This is the third search I'm aware of where a Holloman UAV (RPA in their terminology) has been flown, but as the article states, the first time out of Holloman's restricted area.  http://www.holloman.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123297154

4/9/2012 - HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- For the first time ever, a remotely piloted aircraft from Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., supported an interstate search and rescue mission.

The aircraft, an MQ-9 from the 29th Attack Squadron, was used in a search and rescue due to the RPA's flying and survey ability, making the RPA's prime capabilities an asset for this mission, said Maj. Dustin (last name withheld by the USAF), 29th ATKS assistant director of operations.

This is the first time an RPA has been allowed to fly outside of Holloman's Federal Aviation Administration Approved airspace to support a search and rescue.

"To be able to fly in the national airspace, there is a lot of coordination that has to take place to allow this to happen," Dustin said. Article continues...
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Interstate used because it appears the flight area included part of Texas. From other news articles, there were one or two groups of kayakers on the Gila River. Several of the missing were soldiers from Fort Bliss, which might have had something to do with USAF involvement. All were found safe - they had underestimated how long the trip would take.

Mike

[Woodsy]

Were they found by the UAV, or by other assets? 

[sardak]

They self-recovered, although while one of them was walking out to let the authorities know, he ran into a SAR field team.

Mike

[RiverAux]

And so it begins. 

[PHall]

Considering the sensor fit on the MQ-1, it's not surprising...