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http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123165985

9/2/2009 - LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFNS) -- Air Force officials here Sept. 2 said a disconnected vacuum line caused the April 28 crash of an MQ-1 Predator west of Creech Air Force Base, Nev.

According to an Air Combat Command accident investigation board report, the aircraft executed a hard landing in the rough terrain surrounding the airfield causing most of the damage, with the cost to repair the aircraft valued at $543,178.

The Predator was assigned to the 11th Reconnaissance Squadron from Creech AFB, and there were no injuries or damage to other property or equipment.

According to the report, the cause of the mishap was the failure of the vacuum line that became disconnected at a "T" fitting. The vacuum line controls the flow of air that mixes with fuel to power the aircraft. The loss of this line stalled the aircraft due to excess air in the fuel upon takeoff and resulted in the crash.

I wonder if it was human error during maintenance or equipment failure?

Smells like human error...

miamiair wrote:Smells like human error...

I'm not sure, if you look carefully at the wording...

failure of the vacuum line that became disconnected at a "T" fitting

But the source is an official Air Force site, so there could be some spin to it. I can't find any outside analysis of it yet, the report was just issued a couple of days ago.

miamiair wrote:Smells like human error...

Vacuum lines don't usually disconnect themselves. I bet it was knocked off.

Airfoilsguy wrote:Vacuum lines don't usually disconnect themselves. I bet it was knocked off.

At take-off, on an unmanned aircraft?

ShanwickOceanic wrote:

Airfoilsguy wrote:Vacuum lines don't usually disconnect themselves. I bet it was knocked off.

At take-off, on an unmanned aircraft?

Something lose knocking into it or the line getting stretched. Human error in not putting things back they way they should be.