US border drones grounded following crash landing

The U.S. federal government has grounded the fleet of Predator drones that patrol the southwest border of the country after one of the unmanned aircraft crash- landed in the Pacific Ocean, U.S. media reported on Monday. "While on patrol off the Southern California coast, the unmanned aircraft -- a maritime variant of the Predator B -- experienced a mechanical failure," local media KHOU reported, quoting a written statement from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Texas-based flight crew landed the malfunctioning drone in the sea rather than try to fly it back to its home base in Arizona, according to the report. It crush-landed in the ocean 32 km southwest of San Diego, California. The statement said there were no injuries as a result of the emergency landing. Since the crash landing, the nine remaining drones have stopped surveillance flights over the border region. In the statement, the Customs and Border Protection said the drone fleet involved in border security operations has been grounded "out of an abundance of caution." The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the cause of the mechanical failure that led the federal government to halt border drone flights for now.