Little drone, big fears: White House incident occurs amid worries over UAVs

WASHINGTON — There are big fears in the U.S. intelligence community about little devices like the one that slammed into the White House this morning.

A small drone crashed into the lawn of the presidential residence just after 3 a.m. this morning.

The two-foot-long quadcopter didn’t cause any damage, and President Barack Obama was away on a trip to India anyway.

But the compound was placed on lockdown. Emergency crews scoured the premises and the Secret Service began investigating where the device might have come from.

That’s because American intelligence agencies are concerned about the growing availability of recreational drones — and their potential use as a terrorist weapon.

U.S. military officials tell The Canadian Press there’s fear that a little toy purchased at an electronics store could be equipped with explosives and used in an attack.

Norad, the Canada-U.S. agency that’s been monitoring the skies for aerial threats since the Cold War, now says it’s developing a policy to deal with small unmanned aerial vehicles.

Norad is already testing blimps over Washington, D.C., to detect different threats, including drones.