"We flew this area with two different kinds of aircraft," said Gene Robinson of Drone Pilot, Inc. "We used high-resolution cameras, and when we came across things we had no way of identifying, we sent in ground crews with GPS coordinates".
"At no point did MH17 fly into, or request to fly into, this area," the statement said.
Any aircraft - including helicopters - wishing to fly within this area must have air traffic control (ATC) clearance and obey the instructions of air traffic controllers.
As we'd seen flying in, this area was comprised of nothing but mile after mile of uninterrupted single canopy greenery, each mile like a blueprint of the one before-an unchanging snapshot of time and topography.
At 2 05 p.m., as Operation Badr began, an artillery barrage was initiated against the fort using just the 85 mm guns and B-10 recoilless rifles of the brigade's anti-tank company; the use of high trajectory artillery guns was forbidden since a number of Egyptian aircraft were flying over this area.
The main objective was to evaluate the ecology of phlebotomine sand flies in this area in order to better target the potential vectors of leishmaniasis.
Localised transmission around a family home is less likely due to the ecology of the vector, which typically prefers bushes and thickets around wetlands or rivers, away from homesteads; data on breeding sites and of movement activity of tsetse flies in this area illustrates that these riverine flies only travel around 350 metres [ 24].
"We were able to watch this on television, because we'd fly over areas where we could pick up a signal.
Helicopters cannot fly to the area because the thin air disables their blades, making hauling this graveyard down nearly impossible.
"We would never fly over an area if we thought it was unsafe.
