A Pensacola fishing crew set out for grouper and snapper on Saturday and came back with a nearly 10-foot U.S. military drone instead.
Quick Take
- Hot Spots Charters pulled a delta-wing drone from the Gulf of Mexico on September 19 during a six-hour trip off Pensacola Beach.
- The aircraft resembles the Iranian-designed Shahed-136 and is identified as a U.S. Air Force LUCAS test drone.
- Eglin Air Force Base confirmed the drone crashed into the water two days earlier during routine testing.
- The Air Force retrieved the aircraft the same day the fishermen reported it.
Charter Crew Stumbles Onto Military Hardware
Hot Spots Charters, based in Pensacola, was running a normal six-hour fishing trip Saturday when the crew spotted something odd floating in the water. Instead of a fish, they hauled in a large unmanned aircraft. The company posted a photo on Facebook showing the drone laid out next to the day’s regular catch, calling it a surprising find offshore near Eglin Air Force Base.
The drone measured close to 10 feet long and had a delta-wing shape. Several outlets noted it closely resembles the Shahed-136, the Iranian-designed attack drone that has drawn global attention in recent conflicts. But this one belonged to the United States military, not a foreign power.
Air Force Confirms It Lost a Test Aircraft
Eglin Air Force Base told local reporters the drone was a LUCAS unmanned aircraft system, sometimes referred to as the FLM-136, an American-built airframe based on the same design as the Shahed-136. A base spokesperson said the aircraft went down two days before the fishermen found it. “On Thursday, Sept. 17, a LUCAS UAS impacted the water during routine scheduled testing on the Eglin AFB Range,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that the aircraft “has been recovered and is back in the Department’s possession,” confirming the military moved quickly once it learned civilians had picked up the wayward drone. The base did not release further details about the specific test or how far the drone had drifted before the charter crew came across it.
Gulf Testing Is Nothing New for Eglin
Eglin Air Force Base has used Gulf of Mexico waters for drone testing for decades, dating back to the 1950s when the Air Force first launched target drones from the base. The military keeps a small fleet of 120-foot boats specifically built to recover sub-scale drones after test flights and live-fire exercises over the water.
That history helps explain how a test article can end up drifting far enough to be found by a civilian boat. Losing a drone during testing is not unusual on its own. What made this case stand out was that a charter crew, not a military recovery boat, found the aircraft first and posted about it before the Air Force had said anything publicly.
A Story That Captured Attention Fast
The find spread quickly online once Hot Spots Charters shared its photo. National outlets picked up the story within a day, and social media users speculated about what kind of drone it was before Eglin confirmed the LUCAS identification. The mix of a strange-looking aircraft, an unusual setting, and a slow initial response from officials helped drive the story’s rapid spread across news and social platforms.
A Florida fishing boat returned from a charter with an unmanned aircraft system resembling a U.S. Air Force LUCAS drone. https://t.co/o37pz0hc2k
— Air Force Times (@AirForceTimes) September 22, 2026
By the time most reports were published, the Air Force had already reclaimed the drone. The episode ended with a fairly simple explanation: a routine test near an active military range, a lost aircraft, and a fishing crew in the right place at the right time to reel in one of the more unusual catches Pensacola has seen.
Sources:
washingtontimes.com, patch.com, thedailybeast.com, chron.com
