If you’re like me, the subject of unmanned aerial drones—those newcomers-of-the-skies used by the military along with a growing number of civilian outfits—brings mixed emotions.
If you’re like me, the subject of unmanned aerial drones—those newcomers-of-the-skies used by the military along with a growing number of civilian outfits—brings mixed emotions.
On the one hand, drones are kind of neat; the ultimate radio-controlled airplane for those hobbyists into such things. Though they started out with the military, drones have proven to be extremely useful in a wide variety of civilian applications as well, such as monitoring forest fires, keeping an eye on freeway traffic, helping the cops chase bad guys and so on.
But like everything that is for our “benefit,” drones also have a darker side and their presence in the skies brings with it questions of privacy and even constitutional rights. These things, after all, are piloted with little oversight (pardon the pun) and—like much of our increasingly technological society—legal precedent has yet to catch up with a great many of their uses.
The reason I’m bothering you with all this is because of the revelation in the news recently of the U.S. Navy’s intention of building a drone base in the Malibu area.
Now, I’m certainly not one of the “black drone” crowd, but since a typical drone like the Navy’s new X-47B has a range of a couple thousand miles, there is little doubt in my mind that Catalina Island will be one of the places they will “keep an eye on.” Like I say, that’s kind of cool on the one hand, but kind of not cool on the other, especially if you like skinny-dipping at Salta Verde.
The article I read was remarkably free of any eyebrow-raising concerns with regards to the operation of these aircraft over densely-populated civilian neighborhoods.
There were, of course, the predictable ribald comments from the public beneath the article about using the drones to “scout” the beaches of Malibu and such. But there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of soul searching there.
Don’t forget, just because you can’t see these drones doesn’t mean they’re not up there. They can be thousands of feet in the air, invisible to your human eye and yet even from that altitude they can tell what kind of cigarette you’re smoking, if you still smoke. And don’t think you’re safe on a cloudy day. They can see right through that like it’s not even there.
The reason I’m bringing all this up is because I strongly believe Catalina Island has already been visited on occasion by these craft in the past, and although there’s apparently no law against these visitations, these episodes nonetheless were slightly nerve-wracking to those who witnessed them.
Both of the following presumed drone sightings have been reported by me in past columns, but they bare repeating here given the possibility (probability?) that more drones could very well be appearing in our skies before long.
Back in the early 1990s when stealth drone technology was still pretty much in its infancy, Don Salvo was camping under the stars out at Ben Weston beach with some friends.
Late that night, after midnight some time, he and fellow Islander Isaac Felix noticed what appeared to be a small “craft” of some kind come hovering above the far end of the beach.
It was too dark to make out any details about the craft, but they could see it moving against the stars. Whatever it was, they said, was completely silent.
The craft then came to a stop while hovering above the beach and suddenly emitted three quick flashes of light. With that, the thing rapidly ascended out of view once again.
But the weirdness was only beginning. Don said that the next morning a US Marine Corps Sikorsky Seahawk helicopter (the Navy’s version of the legendary “Blackhawk”) made several passes over the beach, circling around as it did so.
Shortly after that, a civilian helicopter showed up and actually landed on the beach. Out of the chopper climbed several Asian men in black suits and ties who then proceeded to look around the area.
They didn’t approach either Don or Isaac, even though they were obviously aware of their presence. Instead, these “men in black” just spent a short time inspecting the beach area before climbing back into the chopper and taking off.
Similar to this story is an account that former Islander Jim Lehr told me a number of years go. Like Don and Isaac’s story, it occurred sometime in the early to mid-1990s.
One morning about 3 a.m., Jim was up and about at his condo at Sol Vista. From his living room he looked toward the back of Avalon Canyon and saw some kind of illuminated craft scooting along and over the ridge from the Salta Verde/Palisades area. The craft then descended into Avalon Canyon.
Jim watched with amazement as the craft drifted over the sleeping town of Avalon.
As with Don and Isaac’s sighting, Jim said the craft was completely silent—no sounds of any motor nor whir of any propellers.
Jim got on the phone immediately and called the Harbor Office on the pier, the only place he could think of where there might be someone on duty who was also in a position to be able to see what he had seen. Sure enough, one of the patrolmen on duty had seen—and wondered about—the same thing.
If these were not human-operated drones in both of these examples, I shudder to think what they may have been or from whence they came.
But assuming these were secret drone tests of our earthly military organizations, and this was occurring nearly two decades ago, you can bet we have been visited since and will no doubt be visited again.
Jim Watson is the author of “Mysterious Island: Catalina,” available on Amazon, Kindle and in stores all over Avalon.
