US Officials Admit RQ-170 Aircraft Crashed In Iran
A senior US official has acknowledged that the US lost control one of the super-secret RQ-170 spy aircraft that was patrolling in Afghan airspace, and it crashed inside Iran. The craft apparently veered hard into Iranian airspace, where it crashed:
According to the official, the RQ-170 drone was flying inside Afghanistan along the Iranian border, when ground commanders “lost control” of the aircraft. It took a “hard turn” into Iran and ultimately crashed, the source said.
Iranian media reported on Sunday that their country’s military had shot down a U.S. reconnaissance drone in eastern Iran, but a U.S. official said there was no indication the aircraft had been shot down.The incident comes at a time when Tehran is trying to contain foreign outrage at the storming of the British embassy on Tuesday, after London announced sanctions on Iran’s central bank in connection with Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.
Iran has announced several times in the past that it shot down U.S., Israeli or British drones, in incidents that did not provoke high-profile responses.“Iran’s military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran,” Iran’s Arabic-language Al Alam state television network on Sunday quoted a military source as saying.
The RQ-170, which is shaped much like the B-2 stealth bomber and is a flying wing variant, has been tagged as the Beast of Kandahar after grainy photos of it leaked online. The craft has no weapons capabilities at this time - it’s believed to be a tactical sensor platform, and was likely scouring the Iranian-Afghan border for cross-border infiltrations by Taliban elements.