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UNIDENTIFIED DRONES FLEW over Paris for a second night in a row in the latest mystery appearance of unmanned aircraft over the French capital at a time of high security.
The latest sightings follow a series of drone spottings at French atomic plants last year and, more recently, over the presidential palace and a bay in Brittany that houses nuclear submarines.
Authorities have been left scratching their heads as they remain unable to catch any of the operators or determine whether the flyovers are malicious in nature, at a time of high vigilance after last month’s deadly Paris attacks.
A police source said that witnesses and security forces reported at least five incidents overnight Tuesday to Wednesday over central Paris.
The tiny aircraft were spotted near the US embassy, not far from the Invalides military museum, the Eiffel Tower and several major thoroughfares leading in and out of the French capital, the source added.
Police had already been trying to find out who was behind the appearance of an estimated five separate drone flights over similar areas of Paris the previous night.
“Is it a game? Scouting for future operations? The investigation will show us,” a Parisian police chief said Tuesday.
Authorities were first alerted to mystery drone flyovers in October, when state-run power company EDF filed a complaint with police after detecting the small unmanned aerial vehicles zipping over seven atomic plants.
The sightings continued into November, and altogether some 20 flyovers took place over nuclear plants. Their operators were never found.
French law bans small civilian drones from sensitive areas such as nuclear facilities, which are protected by a no-fly zone that spans a 2.5 km radius and a height of 1,000 metres.
Flying the unmanned aerial vehicles over the French capital is also banned by law.
In October, a 24-year-old Israeli tourist spent a night in jail and was slapped with a €400 fine for flying a drone above the Notre Dame cathedral.
Then on January 20, a pilotless aircraft briefly went over the presidential palace in Paris, not long after three days of jihadist attacks in the capital left 17 people dead and put the country on heightened alert.
And at the end of January, small drones were spotted near a bay in Brittany that houses four nuclear submarines — one of the most protected sites in the country.
Faced with the difficulty of intercepting drones and their operators, France has launched a €1 million programme aimed at developing ways of detecting them.
The pilotless aircraft come in all shapes and sizes, and have a variety of uses, from widely reported military applications to surveillance, filmmaking, sports, disaster relief and scientific research.
The most basic unmanned aircraft are radio-controlled by someone nearby, but other more sophisticated models can be pre-programmed and the operator can be miles away.
Meanwhile 8000 army personnel in barracks with little to do all day…
@Aire Dezamba:
Its a nice thought ? You don’t expect the Army to to police hooligans on public transport Draft all the hooligans into the Army
@Alan Scott: no I am expecting them to get rid of the gangs and drug dealers.
@Aire Dezamba: it’s funny that so many areas there is no money for. Yet every budget , there is over an extra half billion for an already insane welfare spend …
An Garda Siochana have enough to tackle without being involved in the issues involving public transport. Ticket checks by inspectors on Dublin Bus are as rare as they’ve ever been. Anti social behaviour, drug use and dealing and fare evasion are rife on our public transport system and no Minister give a flying fcuk because they don’t use it, unless it’s first class service on Irish Rail. Meanwhile the general public run the gauntlet going about their business and hope they get home from their days work with their belonging in tack and their clothes odour free of smoke. It’s time for a dedicated transport police policy.
@Paul Linehan: I was on the luas going to Broadstone there was a ticket check on the way there and another one on the way back I returned on the red line with no sign of a check on either side.
@Alan Scott: To be fair to the Luas. I’ve seen plenty of ticket checks on both lines and security interventions for anti social issues.
FFS I’ve been saying it for years as it’s been everywhere else in the world for years. Fukin no brainer ideas take generations to be seen as sensible in this country.
@Pip: I’m not aware of any country apart from Britain with a transport police. NYC merged theirs with the NYPD some time ago
So the only alternative is when public service vehicle’s been stoned is to make all of the Communities suffer by pulling the service? You put that against Ministerial cars been stoned you will get a swift reaction from the Garda .Two sets of rules for the same job.
Cosy relationship with the government in the top brass of the Gardaí, any attempt to usurp the elite and offer another force to compare the performance of the Gardaí will obviously be met with reluctance. Charlie Flanagan acting as a mouthpiece for those in charge of the Gardaí. Why does the article not have a quote from the Garda commissioner on this proposal?
@BreadBasketCase: harbor police were disbanded against Garda wishes. Airport police are glorified security and an Garda siochana has repeatedly called for the airport police to become a fully fledged police force.
So really, your talking shite
Flanagan belongs in a retirement home!
Many thanks to all engaging in antisocial behavior on green luas and other posh “specific areas”. Without you this would never have been possible.
CCTV is great but it’s after the fact.
The value of Police presence is worth so much more.
Meanwhile they send 400 Garda to Donbeg,Co.Clare to “protect” Trump!
@F Fitzgerald Ne Reeves: when?
Full of sh*t
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