So, can anybody find out how far this was inside out airspace when it crashed?

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_16875462?source=rss

Dang, next they'll be para-shootin in!

El Paso is right on the border next to Ciudad Juarez.

it's not illegal to shoot down an unmanned spy plane, or is it?

Are we sure it wasn't in US Airspace without our knowledge?

The wound up rubber band that runs the thing broke!

The Flying Burrito Brothers are at it again??

hmmmm? good question.

when the Revenuers utilized fixed-wing aircraft to spot illegal stills, any single engine plane buzzing over was subject to be fired upon from the ground.

to avoid this inconvenience, most of the forestry type forest fire spotters would have "Forestry" in big letters emblazoned on the bottom of their firebased Cessna's.

an unwritten, unspoken agreement was that they would never report an illegal still, If the still-owners never fired at a spotter plane with the "forestry" decal. it was an act of self-preservation on both sides, i suspect.

My reaction is a little less "Ha Ha."

Aerial drones are used for reconnaissance. Just what is the Mexican government looking at over here? Times when the Border Patrol isn't watching a hole in the fence? Whether a Customs patrol is near the end of a smuggling tunnel?

Hmmm?

It could also be the complete opposite, ie American backed parts of the one of the Mexican LEO organisations carrying out recce flights in the war against the drug cartels.

If the Mexicans are operating drones, I'm betting they are American supplied, with American training and support to keep them flying...I doubt the Mexicans could fly a kite on two consecutive days without American help...

It would also explain why the drone was returned so promptly...

Laffin'

But they are pretty crafty. Here's the drone taking off from a mobile launcher

That would depend on who owned the spy plane and how powerful the country was that put up the spy plane - wouldn't it?

I wouldn't want to be the Iraqi, living in his own country - who shot down a drone that he'd didn't like taking his pictures.

I wouldn't think his life would be worth too much...

well, there it is, in black & white, once again. like back in the day, the "invention" of the machine gun was supposed to end war forever, given the technological advantage.

but, no, it didn't happen. so, i'm not surprised to see a Mexican based drone fly-over. of course, rifleman have often been willing to fire into machine-gun nests.

technology trumps life, every single day. nothing new here.

Yes, but is Yarbrough & Loop 375 100 yards inside the border, or 5 miles inside the border?

dollar will get ya a doughnut, that this was really owned and operated by the drug cartel. They get all their hardware free from the mexican government.
Oh, and we paid for it.

Considering the price of donuts [ just ask DINK ] that's about an even money bet . And a bet you would lose .

Supplied by us - operated by the Federales- with permission to enter our airspace .Count on it .

they had a drone here at naval air station corpus christi not to long ago that was being sent to mexico.

Looked it up myself.. appears to within a couple of hundred yards of the border. Close enough that it easily could have been flying on their side until it lost control.

Wonder how many of these they have up, and if we have any oversight into what they use them for?

so, a foreign drone flying over our neighborhood is spotted, we should hold our fire? what about illegal aliens moving through the neighborhood by truck, are they exempt also?

does that ex-Governor down in Florida support all of this non-sense? what's his name? uh, Bush.

no more Bush's, Clinton's or Obama's. we must move to secure our borderlines, or be enveloped by illegal aliens.

they walk across the borderlines, they drive through the borderlines, and now, they're flying over the borderlines. when is Logic going to prevail??

Gus , I don't presume to know the solution to any other state's immigration problem , but I know that the Texas problem MUST be solved on the Mexican side .Giving drones to the Mexican gov't is a part of that solution .

Within the past two weeks , I drove from San Benito to Sanderson , hugging the border all the way .How long since YOU did that ?

It is logistically and legally impossible to patrol the actual border in Texas for most of its' 1200+ mile length .That's why I came thru a number of BP checkpoints on my little journey .

It's also why I saw numerous BP agents driving in the borrow ditches where they blade the ground so footprints are more easily spotted .

Some of you people just don't seem to understand that there are no public roads - and in many cases no roads at all - for many long stretches of the Rio Grande .

Get out a map and look at HWY 90 from Del Rio to Van Horn . ALL the land south of the highway is NOT patrolled by the BP .There is a reason for that .

As far as sending troops down there ; Where you gonna lodge them ? Ever read the Third Amendment ?

Unless you actually spend some time down there , you have no idea of the immensity or the intensity of the problem of the Texas border with Mexico .

I'll leave others to speak of the problem in the other border states and as far as I know , most of the Florida wetbacks are of the saltwater variety .

thank you for your input and comments.

we gotta take stock, and choose to go in one direction or the other, at whatever rate of change.

the only thing in front of us now is the future.

You know , Gus , I think I finally - after ten years here - posted something that makes more sense than the "other guy" .

I'm very much obliged to you .

I believe it's often referred to as an "understanding" .Don't have a clue as to how many .

Watch WikiLeaks and you will probably find out

Unless it turns out that the poor mistreated cartel members are queer , he ain't likely to get involved .

From:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40716199/ns/us_news/

A small unmanned Mexican drone that crashed into a backyard in El Paso, Texas, was part of a surveillance test by Mexican authorities that ended abruptly when operators lost control of the aircraft, a U.S. security official told NBC News on Friday.

The Department of Homeland Security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the 7-foot-long Orbiter Mini UAV drone flew off course during the test on Tuesday, then veered into Texas airspace and crashed behind a house in El Paso's former agricultural area, where homes are typically built on 1-acre lots. No one was hurt.

The official did not know whether Mexican law enforcement or military officials were operating the aircraft, but said that the Mexican government was using it for surveillance of the border, NBC News reported.

I think it was a weather balloon.

I'll just repeat my previous questions: Surveillance of which side of the border? To prevent or assist smuggling?

Do I see the title of a new Star Wars epic between the Knights of the Jedi and the Dark Lords of the Saith, "The Drone Air Wars"?

IF it is in US airspace without permission, it can be shot down or forced to crash.