Returned To Origin Point When Low Battery Was Detected

One of the safety features of many modern consumer drones is that the aircraft will automatically return to its launch point when it detects that its batteries are running low. But that safety feature proved fatal for an ISIS fighter in Iraq last year.

The U.K. newspaper The Sun reports that this particular combatant had modified a consumer drone to carry plastic explosive which he intended to detonate near troops based in Mosul. But the aircraft sensed its battery was low, and needed to head back to its owner.

The explosives detonated over the head of the ISIS fighter, killing him.

While a security source told The Sun that this particular incident was viewed as "quite a laugh, the drone threat is very real. The fighter killed himself last year due to his own ineptitude, but is still keeping moral high today."

The source said that it is hoped that the ineptitude of the ISIS fighter "will put off other insurgents" in their efforts to weaponize small drones.

(Unidentified insurgent pictured in image from ISIS propaganda via The Sun)

FMI: Source report