Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro survives drone assassination attempt

[anotherlab]

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has survived an apparent assassination attempt involving drones which exploded close to him while he was speaking at an event in Caracas. A tweet posted by rebel forces claimed that 2 drones packed with C4 explosives were detonated closed to the president. The incident was broadcast live and something happens while the president is speaking.

 

[dronesky]

Wow

 

[anotherlab]

Of course, we need to wait for the smoke to clear (literally) before they determine whether or not drones were used. The Washington Post is reporting that firefighters are saying it was a gas tank explosion in an apartment near where the president was speaking. There was an explosion and people were injured. You would think you would hear the drones approaching before they were detonated. There are many ways to describe a drone, ninja-like is usually not one of them.

 

[DroneTurismo]

Even if it was not drones, the fear is now real.

We will never see a day when we are granted more freedoms, we are as free as we will ever be. The only changes to our hobby will be more restrictions. C4 drones, true or not, pretty big reason to pass some new laws.

 

[anotherlab]

Even if it was not drones, the fear is now real.

We will never see a day when we are granted more freedoms, we are as free as we will ever be. The only changes to our hobby will be more restrictions. C4 drones, true or not, pretty big reason to pass some new laws.

This is nothing new. Just about everybody involved in the Syria conflict has been using drones. US backed forces used drones against Russian backed forces. ISIS dropped mortars from drones ands released a propaganda video showing a drone bombing against a Syrian munitions depot.

 

[N017RW]

Yea. Those folks cluge together some fixed wing aircraft as well to carry heavier payloads longer distances.

 

[dpetroni1]

Looks like reports are saying that they used Matrice 600's... Info is still a bit different depends where you look. 1 of them seemed to be intercepted and the other crashed into a building. Each with 2lbs of C4.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Here's a pic of what phantom was about to be deployed on some poor buggers ,confiscated in Iraq by army thankfully,this post is old so who knows what they got on board now days,,the thought is very real and yes president story made our news tonight,I thought of this pic straight away

,,,please do not try this at home

 

[anotherlab]

So the next thing that will happen will be new laws to authorize the use of force to seize control or jam UAVs.

From Bloomberg...

Legislation introduced by Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, would lift restrictions on drone countermeasures that are currently in place. The bill, co-sponsored by Democrats Claire McCaskill of Missouri, North Dakotan Heidi Heitkamp and Doug Jones of Alabama, was approved by a committee and could be included in the upcoming Federal Aviation Administration re-authorization bill.

The bill would give the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department the authority to monitor and track drones without consent of the operator. It also would allow the agencies to “seize or exercise control” of the devices, if necessary

It's not a necessarily a bad thing if that happens, just an unfortunate reminder that some people do bad things and we need to protect ourselves. That same Bloomberg article also mentions that the Venezuelan attack was partly foiled because they were using signal blockers to interfere with drones and cell phones. The Secret Service is already doing this now around the President.

 

[Imf44]

what a waste of a drone

 

[Erised]

Sounds about right, when you don't know where it came from blame it on a drone. And then, where did they get the C4?

 

[sar104]

Sounds about right, when you don't know where it came from blame it on a drone. And then, where did they get the C4?

Or, if you know it's a drone(s), because you saw it happen and have the pieces, blame it on drones. Where do terrorists normally get explosives from?

 

[anotherlab]

Or, if you know it's a drone(s), because you saw it happen and have the pieces, blame it on drones. Where do terrorists normally get explosives from?

While the Venezuelans have not released any evidence, it is an ongoing investigation. They claim to have diverted one of the drones and the other one blew up near a building. Since they are now blaming the Columbian government for the attempt, at some point they are going to have to show the evidence. And the 6 people that they already arrested in connection to the attack.

 

[sar104]

While the Venezuelans have not released any evidence, it is an ongoing investigation. They claim to have diverted one of the drones and the other one blew up near a building. Since they are now blaming the Columbian government for the attempt, at some point they are going to have to show the evidence. And the 6 people that they already arrested in connection to the attack.

Agreed. But, on balance, it looks to me like a real event based on the blast effects seen in the video and the assorted accounts. The Columbian connection was not helped by the ex-Venezualan police chief going on record with Reuters in Columbia claiming to have helped to organize the attack. It's always hard to assess claims like that, however.

Ex-city police chief claims role in Venezuela drone attack

 

[anotherlab]

Agreed. But, on balance, it looks to me like a real event based on the blast effects seen in the video and the assorted accounts. The Columbian connection was not helped by the ex-Venezualan police chief going on record with Reuters in Columbia claiming to have helped to organize the attack. It's always hard to assess claims like that, however.

It will probably be months (if ever) before we know what actually happened. If you take it at face value, there was a drone attack and the electronic counter measures worked.

 

[Erised]

Or, if you know it's a drone(s), because you saw it happen and have the pieces, blame it on drones. Where do terrorists normally get explosives from?

Amazon! they want to deliver with drones too!

It will probably be months (if ever) before we know what actually happened. If you take it at face value, there was a drone attack and the electronic counter measures worked.

If counter measures worked and the results is RTH .... I can just see the bad guys face "WTF" oh crap it's coming back! RUN !.. I vote for RTH as a deterrent.

I don't think that more rules will stop the bad guys as since when do they follow the law. Too bad the media puts the drone (maybe it happened) front page news and when proven it's not drone related it's rarely published. Terrorism sucks and that's the world we live in....sad....

 

[Hunter Hoffman]

It amazes me that the drone scare is so big in the news when 911 they used jumbo jets, and a small plane with hundreds of pounds of explosive / bomb can be dropped. The laws will be like gun laws only the upright will be punished and only the up right will follow them. Laws look at how they work at the border. People who would make good citizens wait years to get in the trouble makers just walk right in.

 

[skiptv]

Please review your facts, and try to not repeat "fake news" the drone attack video is not from this attack, the attack apparently may actually been done by the Pres himself to arrest those opposed to him.

 

[sar104]

Please review your facts, and try to not repeat "fake news" the drone attack video is not from this attack, the attack apparently may actually been done by the Pres himself to arrest those opposed to him.

Which video is not from this attack?

 

[DJ Far]

I saw this on ABC News this week; they showed the video of the President speaking, then a loud bang and everyone in the video, including the president's wife next to him flinches and looks up into the air in front of them. Next scene is the president's security forces surrounding him with flack jackets or aprons.
Then they switch to a video, completely separate, of a hex-rotor exploding while hovering in the air. David Muir did say that "we need to point out that the drone video may not be associated with the video of the president", and went on to talk about the concern about "weaponizing drones".
My concern is much more focused on the issue of curated news than with weaponizing drones. This was not a youtube video - this was a major network assembling two videos together that clearly imply that the explosion may have been caused by an exploding drone. Regardless of the broadcaster's disclaimer that the videos were not connected, the image one is left with is "drone used in assassination attempt on Venezuelan president, concern about weaponized drones".
Responsible reporting would have simply stayed with the facts, not called it an "assassination attempt" until they knew that it wasn't a gas explosion, and left out the exploding drone video completely.