October 16 , 2007 SB-07-52
Full report here (http://www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2007/071016b.htm)
Washington, DC - As a result of its first investigation of an accident involving an unmanned aircraft (UA), the National Transportation Safety Board today issued a total of 22 safety recommendations to address what NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said were "a wide range of safety issues involving the civilian use of unmanned aircraft."
The safety recommendations approved by the Board stemmed from the April 25, 2006, accident in which a turboprop- powered Predator B operated on a surveillance mission by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CPB) crashed in a sparsely populated residential area near Nogales, Arizona. No one on the ground was injured; the remotely piloted 66- foot wingspan aircraft was substantially damaged.
The Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the pilot's failure to use checklist procedures when switching operational control from a console that had become inoperable due to a "lockup" condition, which resulted in the fuel valve inadvertently being shut off and the subsequent total loss of engine power, and a lack of a flight instructor in the Ground Control Station.
Mike