Predators send video feeds to help in Haiti - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Predators send video feeds to help in Haiti

Six Predators started flying missions over Haiti from a Puerto Rican airport Jan. 27, marking the first time the Air Force’s unmanned RQ-1s have flown humanitarian missions or operated out of a civilian airport.

The Predators have flown two round-the-clock orbits over Port-au-Prince, feeding full-motion video of roads and buildings, devastated by the Jan. 12 earthquake, to service members, relief organizations and Haitian officials.

“We have focused a lot on roads and infrastructure because they want to see what is intact,” said Maj. Jeff Bright, the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing detachment commander during a Jan. 28 telephone interview from Puerto Rico.

The Air Force didn’t receive approval from the Federal Aviation Administration until Jan. 25. Predators and MQ-9 Reapers had never before received FAA approval to operate out of a civilian airport.

Brig. Gen. Darryl Burke, the Air Forces Southern vice commander acting as the Air Component Coordination with Joint Task Force-Haiti, said the Predator’s Haitian flights represent a historic first that could further debate regarding remotely piloted aircraft operations inside the U.S.

“Today, the Air Force team proved remotely piloted aircraft can operate safely alongside civilian, military and international air traffic during a large-scale air relief campaign,” he said in a statement.

About 50 airmen make up 432nd’s detachment which deployed from Creech Air Force Base, Nev., to Puerto Rico on Jan. 18.

The airmen stationed at Aeropuerto Rafael Hernandez outside Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, maintain the Predators and fly the aircraft during take offs and landings. Pilots and sensor operators at Creech fly the rest of the mission, similar to how it’s done in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Predator operations in Haiti have not affected those in Afghanistan, Bright said. The crews and aircraft came from the formal training unit at Creech.

“This is an open deployment. We are going to be here as long as we are needed,” Bright said.

The hardest part of the deployment thus far has been receiving approval from the FAA, the detachment commander said. Service officials have been in discussions with the FAA about operating at civilian airports for years, but saving lives in Haiti served as a motivator to move this mission along, Bright said.

“There have been some very difficult roadblocks but we have been able to overcome them all,” he said.

FAA officials have mandated certain restrictions such as limiting take offs and landings to day-light hours and posting an airmen outside to maintain a visual of the Predators during those events.

The Air Force declassified the feeds from the Predators to allow relief organizations such as the Red Cross, U.S.A.I.D. and the United Nations to have access to them. Having live video feeds rather than still imagery from a Global Hawk or a U-2 — which have also flown over Haiti — allows commanders to move quickly to different regions of Port-au-Prince depending on need, Bright said.

“The beauty is that the full motion video is live so if you are looking at something that might not be so important you can say let’s move on or … you can stay there longer,” he said.