Summary
A drone collision grounded one of two Super Scooper planes battling Los Angeles wildfires, leaving a critical resource unavailable.
The collision damaged the aircraft’s wing, forcing its grounding, and temporarily paused other firefighting flights, creating significant delays.
The FAA emphasized the dangers of flying drones near wildfires, noting it’s a federal crime with penalties up to $75,000 and prison time.
Over 36,000 acres have burned, with officials warning that delays in air support allow wildfires to spread rapidly, endangering lives and property.
This is a serious bummer all around. But wow, does that article suck on its lack of detail. But I guess actually digging into the facts wouldn’t make for clickable headlines. “Oooooh, DRONES!”
- There are Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) in place for that region.
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Was the drone part of monitoring/firefighting efforts? If it was, that is a terrible error on the part of the sUAS operator and observer. Then again, smoke and fire, which would make for a less interesting story. “Drone participating in firefighting hits plane.” Editor: Boooring! Let’s make it vague so we can cash in on some drone fears.
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Lots of drones won’t even fly in a TFR zone. More professional drones will warn the pilot AND provide a warning about planes in proximity.
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All sUAS 250 grams and larger are required to have RemoteID. Plenty of drones won’t even fly unless the RemoteID is functioning fully. And if it shits the bed during flight, lots of drones will just automatically land. Again, except for more professional models or for small cheapies. So one of two things are true: the FAA knows exactly who the responsible party is, or the operator is an utter douchecanoe
It’s not all bad news. Mel Gibson’s house burned down.
And James Woods’.
Nice. Fucking nice.
If that drone doesn’t have a very valid, emergency services type reason to be there, that would make the operator an irresponsible asshole.
My guess is it’s an LAPD operator. The civilians stayed out of the restricted airspace. Some chud cop thinks the rules don’t apply to him, so he flies a drone in an unauthorized zone. He manages to hit a firefighting plane. And the LAPD quickly sweeps the whole thing under the rug and blames it on a never-found civilian.
Marrone warned that federal officials were monitoring the area and had the ability to identify who was flying drones.
What with all the drone hysteria in NJ this is amusing.
