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Help An Elementary School Find Its Lost Drone

Wells Bennett
Wednesday, January 7, 2015, 2:39 PM
It seems Chesterbrook Elementary, of Fairfax County, Virginia, has lost its drone---and now wishes to enlist the help of the community in locating it. Such is the gist of the below email, sent by a school official earlier today. (I have embedded the video and pictures, which are linked in the original.)  Chesterbrook isn't that far away from Langley... 

Missing Drone - we need your help!  :)

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It seems Chesterbrook Elementary, of Fairfax County, Virginia, has lost its drone---and now wishes to enlist the help of the community in locating it. Such is the gist of the below email, sent by a school official earlier today. (I have embedded the video and pictures, which are linked in the original.)  Chesterbrook isn't that far away from Langley... 

Missing Drone - we need your help!  :)

Chesterbrook Community- We need your help!  :)  In an effort to air "Way Up There Weather" today on the morning news, the McLean winds were a bit too strong for Chesterbrook's Drone, causing it to be pushed WAY off course!  Needless to say, it is now missing!  :(  After searching for quite a while on our own, we would like to turn over the clues to you all to see if you can help us return the Drone to the school!  Here are the clues we have thus far: The last video transmission of the path (and where it looks like it was heading): Based on that video, we feel it ended up somewhere in the shaded portion of this map: MissingDroneTargetArea For those that have not had a chance to actually see what our drone looks like, here is an image of it (Phantom FC40 with propeller guards - two white, two red): Looking through the camera on the device during the last transmission, it looked like the camera was pointing toward the snow, leading us to believe one of two things: 1)      The drone and camera miraculously ended up on the ground (or a roof) and are not stuck in a tree, or, 2)      The drone is stuck up in a tree, but the camera fell out and may be on the ground nearby. Any help is great appreciated in trying to secure and return our drone!  :) Thank you in advance!

Wells C. Bennett was Managing Editor of Lawfare and a Fellow in National Security Law at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to Brookings, he was an Associate at Arnold & Porter LLP.

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