State DOT Paid $75,000 For Unmanned Drone It Can’t Use

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Big oops.

The state Dept. of Transportation bought a $75,000 unmanned drone aircraft — but it hasn’t been able to use it because officials never checked to make sure they could fly it around Honolulu Harbor. Turns out the harbor is within the restricted airspace zone of the Honolulu International Airport. 

“Unfortunately, we never checked if we could fly a UAV around Honolulu harbor.  And we cannot,” said DOT spokesman Dan Meisenzhal.

Hawaii News Now broke the story.

Blogger Ian Lind has an interesting take of his own: Questioning the Cost of DOT’s Drone Aircraft

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