A spokesman for U.S. Customs & Border Patrol, the agency which found a small Mexican drone after it crashed in an El Paso neighborhood, told CNN today that it’s the first time a Mexican drone has crashed on U.S. soil.
Officials confirm the drone, which crashed in residential yard Tuesday, was an unmanned, radio-controlled craft called an Orbiter Mini UAV owned by the Mexican government. Border Patrol was the first to respond to the crash, and has since turned the investigation over the the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates plane crashes.
But the drone has already been returned to the Mexican government and NTSB officials say they are not visiting the scene of the crash.
NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway told TPM today that it’s is looking at the “safety perspective” of the crash.
“What we’re looking at is, why the drone crashed,” he said. “Not necessarily what it was doing.”
Holloway said his agency is working with Customs & Border Patrol and NORAD on the investigation.
As he told CNN, “I guess we are investigating, but we don’t know what we’re going to do with the information at this point.”
