It was confirmed that a homemade drone, which was discovered a week after it crashed at the Incheon LNG base of Korea Gas Corporation, an important national facility, took pictures of the major facilities.
According to the Incheon Yeonsu Police Station, the drone that was found at the Korea Gas Corporation Incheon LNG base in Songdo International City, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon at 9:35 am on the 20th recorded a video of 1 minute and 40 seconds before the crash.
The memory card inserted into the drone contains images of some of the major industrial facilities and port facilities in the Incheon LNG base from the sky.
The video was shot at around 2:26 pm on the 13th, a week before the crashed drone was discovered.
The Korea Gas Corporation was unaware of the drone's flight or crash until a worker discovered a 25cm-diameter drone on a road at the base.
The police received a report from the security officer at the Incheon LNG base at the time and rushed to the scene to check the drone with four wings and one camera.
This drone flew without prior permission from the Ministry of National Defense during video shooting, and it turned out to be a 'homemade' product without a unique identification number.
Incheon LNG Base, the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and supply facility in Korea, is classified as an important national facility and has the highest security level in Korea.
However, this drone crash has exposed loopholes in the surveillance and response system related to unidentified flying objects.
Park Seok-jong, president of the Korea Drone Industry Association, said, "Except for airports at important national facilities, monitoring of illegal drone flight is entrusted to the Cheongwon Police or entrusted to private organizations. "He said.
“Institutional overhaul is needed so that major institutions can establish drone detection and response systems,” he said.
An official from the Seoul Aviation Administration said, "The number of drones increases every year, and there are reports of illegal drone flight."
In response, the Incheon LNG base explained that it has been building a drone flight response system since last July at a cost of 1.5 billion won.
The Incheon LNG base plans to respond to unknown flying objects by bringing in frequency disturbance and radio wave blocking equipment along with drone detection and identification equipment by the middle of next month.
An official from the Incheon LNG base said, "The problem of being vulnerable to drones has been continuously raised, so we are preparing countermeasures."
Meanwhile, the police are investigating Mr. A, in his 50s, who surrendered on the 26th, saying, "I flew a drone."
Person A at the police said, "I flew a drone during club activities, but it seems to have crashed due to the strong wind." "There was no purpose to film the Incheon LNG base."is known to have stated.
The police plan to transfer the case to the Seoul Aviation Administration after confirming Mr. A's violations of the Aviation Safety Act.