Just watched the news here in Toronto and the report says the water bomber will be repaired and back in the air by Monday.
Drone collides AND grounds a firefighting Super Scooper in LA...
- Thread starter VenomXts
- Start date
AMann
Well-Known Member
I have a pilots license and helped build a kit plane, and even a canvas skinned wing will bounce a bird off of it. Planes are not that fragile, in fact the wings can hold a lot of weight, especially when a firefighting plane is pulling up from a dive with a tank full of water in it.There is no way that wind whipped debris dented and punched that square Matrice-shaped hole in the aluminum skinned wing like that. Those planes fly 200mph cruising and 100 when dropping water, and would be crashing all over if they hit and got holes like that from wind kicked up debris. Let’s hope they find some evidence of whatever did it inside the wing, but there may not be any.
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We will never know for sure. The news of the airplane damage will be gone by the end of the weekend.
Everyone is guessing.
After seeing the damage I was sure the plane would be repaired within a couple days. That's not a structural component.
And, if the plane is flying at 200mph (which it's probably not during a water drop), a drone won't do any more or less damage than anything else that's hard that the plane hits. The likelihood that the speed of a drone contributed to the damage is arguable. Someone flying a drone to check out the damage probably wouldn't be going full speed.
Maybe it hit a frozen chicken. Those can do damage.
Everyone is guessing.
After seeing the damage I was sure the plane would be repaired within a couple days. That's not a structural component.
And, if the plane is flying at 200mph (which it's probably not during a water drop), a drone won't do any more or less damage than anything else that's hard that the plane hits. The likelihood that the speed of a drone contributed to the damage is arguable. Someone flying a drone to check out the damage probably wouldn't be going full speed.
Maybe it hit a frozen chicken. Those can do damage.
DARKSeifer
Well-Known Member
DARKSeifer
Well-Known Member
Structural strength against pressure or stress and impact are different things.
Wind can lift solid objects way heavier (and with sharper edges) than a <900g drone. On the other hand, a hovering drone has no kinetic energy at all and will be instantly deviated/destroyed on hit as it offers no resistance, leaving a dent or a scratch at most. The planets kinda need to align for a drone to penetrate the aluminum, but it could happen; it's possible if it hits the precise spot at the precise angle. I'm not saying a drone couldn't do that, I'm saying there's no evidence yet.
The thing here is that there's no evidence that the damage was made by a drone, and as always, the media is demonizing the hobby for free.
In the end a drone hit a firefighting plane, it's not a fact yet (the fact is that a plane got damaged), but it's the truth everyone will believe and repeat from now on even if it's confirmed to be a drone or another thing.
DJI and Autel drones are already kinda banned in the US because potatoes, and more demonization worldwide will come from the NJ events, this plane and so on in exchange for nothing.
How many cars have collided with firefighter trucks or ambulances last year? Who knows. The other day a crazy man drove a car through people in Germany and I can still drive my car like nothing while thousands die each year in car accidents. No one cares, but beware of drones.
Only money and not safety (no one has died in the world by a drone accident) is behind drone overregulation and demonization, and the sooner the hobbyist realize (if there's anyone left that flies), the better.
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My points exactly. Especially if one considers that there would be a part of whatever hit the plan within the hole area.
Drones aren't built like tanks. They WILL leave something behind in a crash with an airplane if there's a hole.
Unfortunately for the drone community they pulled a drone out of the hole if this video is correct.
Lock the person up if found. I just got done talking to someone who lives miles from the Palisades fire. People's lives are being ruined and some clown is flying their drone probably for Likes and thumbs up.
Lock the person up if found. I just got done talking to someone who lives miles from the Palisades fire. People's lives are being ruined and some clown is flying their drone probably for Likes and thumbs up.
AMann
Well-Known Member
So it really was a drone and not flying frozen chickens or bricks kicked up by the wind….Hmmm, imagine that.
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And I never said it wasn't a drone.So it really was a drone and not flying frozen chickens or bricks kicked up by the wind….Hmmm, imagine that.
AMann
Well-Known Member
AMann
Well-Known Member
Not very heavy, wow! Where would the serial number be? And was that a standard sized battery? Good it didn’t ignite from the impact damage as the Canadair CL-415 has internal fuel tanks in its wings.
Hopefully it doesn’t become seen as another reason for requiring 250g recreational drones to be registered and have RID…
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Blue Thunder Pilot
Active Member
Maybe it hit a frozen chicken. Those can do damage.
You were wrong about that too. Based on reports of a fist sized hole it could only have been a frozen Cornish game hen.
Given the hole in the wing I assumed there would be some evidence inside it. The hole looked like it was a head-on impact and not a glancing angled one.
Whether the drone was hovering or on the move or is rank speculation nothing more, with about as much merit as the frozen chicken remark.
It appears we do now know it was a drone. I haven't seen any reports yet expect what's mentioned above about recovered drone bits.
My money was on a lookie-lou drone from the start. I hope they get the guy and that he's criminally prosecuted. At this point I don't give that much more success than this being caused by a frozen chicken.
[speeling errors]
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DARKSeifer
Well-Known Member
Quite impressed it's a Mini; I'd have assumed it would be an Air or a Mavic. At least the Lipo didn't catch fire inside the wing, else it could have been catastrophic.
If they treated the evidence properly, there's enough of the drone to pick fingerprints, specially around the battery, which is a smooth plastic surface that any operator touches with their fingers; there could also be partial fingerprints on the metal parts of the motor.
They could also pick the S/N of the battery, and ask DJI for information of the owner (DJI has the flight logs and location of every drone in their servers, plus all your account data), but since US government is against DJI I doubt DJI will let that information away. Or maybe they do, because cooperating with the authorities is a good damage control in this case.
They were also supposedly monitoring the area with Aeroscope so that flight should be on the Aeroscope log, they just need to filter by S/N to find where it took off from and the email of the DJI account of that drone, which will probably lead to the pilot or at least the owner.
Even if he doesn't confess and say someone stole his drone a week ago or something like that, he is pretty much cooked. They can just look at the log of which antennas his smartphone number was connected to, cross-check with the data from the Aeroscope/logs and basically proof he was there flying the drone at that precise moment, in that location.
Maybe he was dumb enough to post the controller video feed of the crash on Instagram and we didn't even realize yet
PS: The fact that it's a <250g and nothing heavier will definitely put another nail in the hobby coffin.
If they treated the evidence properly, there's enough of the drone to pick fingerprints, specially around the battery, which is a smooth plastic surface that any operator touches with their fingers; there could also be partial fingerprints on the metal parts of the motor.
They could also pick the S/N of the battery, and ask DJI for information of the owner (DJI has the flight logs and location of every drone in their servers, plus all your account data), but since US government is against DJI I doubt DJI will let that information away. Or maybe they do, because cooperating with the authorities is a good damage control in this case.
They were also supposedly monitoring the area with Aeroscope so that flight should be on the Aeroscope log, they just need to filter by S/N to find where it took off from and the email of the DJI account of that drone, which will probably lead to the pilot or at least the owner.
Even if he doesn't confess and say someone stole his drone a week ago or something like that, he is pretty much cooked. They can just look at the log of which antennas his smartphone number was connected to, cross-check with the data from the Aeroscope/logs and basically proof he was there flying the drone at that precise moment, in that location.
Maybe he was dumb enough to post the controller video feed of the crash on Instagram and we didn't even realize yet
PS: The fact that it's a <250g and nothing heavier will definitely put another nail in the hobby coffin.
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Blue Thunder Pilot
Active Member
Third party batteries seem to be popular, so that could be a fly in the ointment. I'd expect fingerprints to be found though that may not help until a suspect is in custody.
Maybe the pilot took forensic countermeasures and wiped everything down with a generic or common cleaner like Windex. Or maybe he wasn't a planner.
We don't know who did the evidence recovery do we? The FBI is involved so it could have been ERT. It's a damaged plane so NTSB? Even if it were LAPD, any of those should capable of proper evidence recovery.
The photo of the drone wreckage is curious. It's not in an evidence bag. Maybe it was removed for the photo op or photographed before it was bagged and tagged.
I'm hoping details that can be released will be released soon. This bodes poorly for our community no question. The longer it takes to find this guy the worse it may be for us.
I don't do BVLOS and would like to be able to walk out my door and fly. There are needed regulations, but between those and drone hysteria, misconceptions and misinformation, flight and flight time may be severely impacted.
Walls may not be completed, grocery prices not reduced, the deficit not reduced by trillions, the Russian war ended, but outlaw or cripple hobby drones? That's definitely doable.
Maybe the pilot took forensic countermeasures and wiped everything down with a generic or common cleaner like Windex. Or maybe he wasn't a planner.
We don't know who did the evidence recovery do we? The FBI is involved so it could have been ERT. It's a damaged plane so NTSB? Even if it were LAPD, any of those should capable of proper evidence recovery.
The photo of the drone wreckage is curious. It's not in an evidence bag. Maybe it was removed for the photo op or photographed before it was bagged and tagged.
I'm hoping details that can be released will be released soon. This bodes poorly for our community no question. The longer it takes to find this guy the worse it may be for us.
I don't do BVLOS and would like to be able to walk out my door and fly. There are needed regulations, but between those and drone hysteria, misconceptions and misinformation, flight and flight time may be severely impacted.
Walls may not be completed, grocery prices not reduced, the deficit not reduced by trillions, the Russian war ended, but outlaw or cripple hobby drones? That's definitely doable.
MARK (LI)
Well-Known Member
FBI working to piece together drone that damaged super scooper while battling Palisades Fire
According to officials, the plane collided with a privately-owned drone, causing significant damage to it.
abc11.com
ryguy80
Well-Known Member
Force equals mass times acceleration. Even if the Mini drone is light, the plane is moving at a good speed.
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ryguy80
Well-Known Member
Not shocking. Figured it was going to end up being a drone with an event like this and all the traditional media and social media coverage. Was just a matter of time before the evidence was found. To me, the damage to the plane suggested a drone strike but I was trying to avoid public speculation.
I think we were all hoping it wasn’t a drone that caused this, but it’s now another strike on the drone community. How many more before we’re “out”?
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