https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/how-a-rogue-drone-in-the-1950s-caused-a-fiasco-that-end-1786633506 (https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/how-a-rogue-drone-in-the-1950s-caused-a-fiasco-that-end-1786633506) and http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/11/local/me-then11 (http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/11/local/me-then11)
The USAF and USN may have learned a few lessons back when... However, it doesn't appear that anyone remembers them 51 years later. :) :O From time to time I've seen more recent reports that TSA and other major drone users (like the USAF, USN, USArmy) have lost control of the modern versions of this Hellcat.
That old cautionary saying, "those of us who forget the past are doomed to repeat it" seems to apply. And a post modern corollary: "A GREAT preflight is always far better than just a 'good' one".
Someone should've noticed there were no gun sights on the pursuit aircraft, nor were the on board aiming equipment functional. Or that the Hellcat control systems were functional. Yeah, "woulda, coulda, shoulda" struck yet again.