£420K Migrant Patrolling Drone Crashed in the English Channel

A malfunction resulted in a £420,000 Home Office drone crashing into the English Channel rather than fulfilling its intended purpose of patrolling the waterway for illegal boat migrants.

07/25/22: This story has been updated. Please see below. 

A Tekever AR3 drone, which was highlighted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his visit to Lydd Airport in Kent in April as part of his government’s £50 million investment into confronting the people smuggling trade operating on both sides of the English Channel, crashed into the waterway before being brought ashore at Dover by a local skipper of a fishing boat on July 5th.

While the skipper declined to comment, a local told The Sun newspaper:  “It wasn’t exactly what the skipper expected to catch on a fishing trip in the Channel. He found the drone floating in the sea and tied it to the back of his boat with a few ropes and brought it back to harbour. He reported it to the authorities who then arranged for it to be collected.

“It’s an embarrassment for the Government and just adds to the chaos in the Channel right now.”

The 1.7meter-long (five feet) drone, was designed to be catapulted from a ship after which it could remain airborne for up to 16 hours. The cost to the taxpayer, including spare parts and training totalled an estimated £420,000.

Admitting to the crash, a Home Office spokesman told the paper: “We are aware of the incident involving a Tekever drone on July 5, it was recovered and the malfunction has since been corrected. Our ability to operate drones in the Channel has not been impacted.

“Evil criminal gangs are putting profit over people by facilitating dangerous and illegal small boat crossings and we are committed to stopping them.”

The revelation of the drone failure comes as over 15,000 illegals have crossed the English Channel from France so far this year, putting the country on pace to see at least 60,000 by the end of the year, over double last year’s record 28,526.

While the government has tasked the Royal Navy to coordinate the crisis in the waterway, some locals have cast doubt as to the effectiveness of such a strategy.

A fisherman told The Sun that the people smuggling operation seems “more streamlined and efficient than ever”.

“The Navy just tow the empty dinghies back to harbour, which Border Force used to do. They’ve become glorified tug boats,” he said, adding that because of the increased safety for migrants provided by the naval presence, more illegals have become encouraged to take the otherwise dangerous journey.

“The migrants are escorted to the sea border in the middle of the Channel by the French. Then they’re picked up by the British then whisked to a big compound at Dover Harbour,” the skipper explained.

“It seems absolute and utter madness. They might as well send a ferry over to France and pick up the migrants. At least you could vet people onboard and it would save a colossal amount of money.”

Labour MP John Spellar also criticised the Royal Navy’s function in the Channel last week, saying that it amounted to a “tour guide for illegal migrants to get them safely onto our shores” and that it “was not the way in which this policy was sold by the Home Office to the British public.”

Update 07/25/22: Drone maker Tekever have requested we point out this was not in fact a crash, but a “safety landing” with a parachute deployed into the sea caused by a malfunction. They said: “During a routine drone operation, a technical malfunction was detected on one of our drones. We followed the necessary protocol and landed the drone safely for collection. The cause of malfunction has been identified and corrected.”

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