US Navy drone found in Quezon

PATNANUNGAN, Quezon, Philippines – Local authorities retrieved near an islet here a floating US Navy aerial target drone that scared fishermen last Sunday, the police reported yesterday.

Police Inspector Ramilo de Luna said a fisherman first spotted at around 4 p.m. last Sunday the orange drone near the islet of Patnanungan in Sitio Katakian, Barangay Busdak.

The markings of the drone indicate that it is owned by the US Navy.

Also inscribed on the drone are the serial number BQ 55079 and model number BQM 74e.

Local fishermen and barangay officials refused to go near the drone for fear that it might explode.

De Luna said local policemen arrived and loaded the drone into a fishing boat. The drone was brought to the local police station.

Maj. Gen. Ricardo Visaya, commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Southern Luzon Command, confirmed yesterday that policemen recovered an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is apparently owned by the US Navy off the Polilio Group of Islands in Quezon.

Visaya said the two feet long UAV with a one-foot wingspan is now in the custody of the Patnanungan police.

He said the military is coordinating with US officials to find out the origin of the drone.

In January 2013, another unarmed US Navy target drone was found in the waters off Masbate.

The US embassy said the UAV was launched from a US Navy ship during a combat exercise off Guam in September 2012 and it might have been washed by ocean currents to the country.

Embassy officials said the BQM-74E drone was launched from the USS Chafee, a guided-missile destroyer, as a mock missile target during naval combat exercises off Guam’s coast. –  With Jaime Laude, Cecille Suerte Felipe