Drone collides with firefighting aircraft over LA

[GroovyGeek]

Drone crash disabled a firefighting plane. Many irate with 'shameful' operator

Several viral videos and images appeared to be taken with drones in conflict with a temporary flight restriction issued by the Federal Aviation Administration to protect firefighting aircraft.

www.latimes.com

Speechless. Hope the pilot gets caught... It's one thing to bend VLOS rules in the back country, but this is beyond excuse.

Oops, seems like a duplicate post. Moderator please delete.

 

[Max Headroom]

That'll teach them a lesson if caught -

“It’s a federal crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison, to interfere with firefighting efforts on public lands,” the statement said. “Additionally, the FAA can impose a civil penalty of up to $75,000 against any drone pilot who interferes with wildfire suppression, law enforcement or emergency response operations” during a temporary flight restriction.

 

[Mrprop365]

In addition to whatever charges for interfering with a manned aircraft

 

[dart106]

Damage to the air tanker. Needs to be severe consequences to the drone “operator”.

 

[Droning on and on...]

While I agree 110% with every comment here about how the drone pilot needs to be caught and forced to watch the Dead or Alive video You Spin me Round on repeat...

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This is also noteworthy as a real example of what sort of damage can occur in a collision.

While the plane is no longer airworthy and certainly shouldn't fly with that hole in the wing, it was not catastrophic... the plane was still fully controllable and flying, was able to safely land.

 

[dart106]

While I agree 110% with every comment here about how the drone pilot needs to be caught and forced to watch the Dead or Alive video You Spin me Round on repeat...

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This is also noteworthy as a real example of what sort of damage can occur in a collision.

While the plane is no longer airworthy and certainly shouldn't fly with that hole in the wing, it was not catastrophic... the plane was still fully controllable and flying, was able to safely land.

True. Lucky that it was a wing hit vs the windshield.

 

[DARKSeifer]

While the plane is no longer airworthy and certainly shouldn't fly with that hole in the wing, it was not catastrophic... the plane was still fully controllable and flying, was able to safely land.

If the lipo gets hit hard enough and gets stuck inside the wing, say goodbye to the plane. It doesn't take much to bring a plane down.

The hardest part is to bring a little object to collide with another one in a three-dimensional space, but once it happens, the lipo can easily catch fire.

 

[JP_CACIKE]

View attachment 180479
Damage to the air tanker. Needs to be severe consequences to the drone “operator”.

If the rest of us do not "police" our own community then don't complain when we lose our rights to fly as "free", we do now. We need to weed out the a**holes now before their drones cause more damage. Be prepared the "Karens" will be out in force from now on HFTA

 

[GroovyGeek]

Just saw a clip from the LA ABC News affiliate. The FBI has recovered the drone and are piecing it together to identify the owner and operator. They had an interview with the head of the investigation who made it sound that when they find the operator they are in for a world of hurt.

Which begs the question - wasn't remote ID supposed to make this very easy? Why can't they just pull up the remote IDs of any drones that are in the no-fly zone, and start dishing out pain?

 

[Droning on and on...]

Which begs the question - wasn't remote ID supposed to make this very easy? Why can't they just pull up the remote IDs of any drones that are in the no-fly zone, and start dishing out pain?

No guarantee, but chances are higher that someone willing to do this is doing it with an unregistered drone, so RID won't help.

Or, they have an IQ of five and had no idea they were doing anything wrong.

 

[Photo Booth]

Just saw a clip from the LA ABC News affiliate. The FBI has recovered the drone and are piecing it together to identify the owner and operator. They had an interview with the head of the investigation who made it sound that when they find the operator they are in for a world of hurt.

Which begs the question - wasn't remote ID supposed to make this very easy? Why can't they just pull up the remote IDs of any drones that are in the no-fly zone, and start dishing out pain?

Ya'll should be reading the topic that has been the most active regarding this situation. Lots of questions answered there.

Drone collides AND grounds a firefighting Super Scooper in LA...

Jan 9, 2025

This @#%# pi$$es me off so much.....

Drone crash disabled a firefighting plane. Many irate with 'shameful' operator

Several viral videos and images appeared to be taken with drones in conflict with a temporary flight restriction issued by the Federal Aviation Administration to protect firefighting aircraft.

www.latimes.com

“We hit a drone this afternoon — first one,” said L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone. “Our Super Scooper hit a small drone.”

He said the incident occurred over the Palisades fire Thursday. He didn’t have details on who was flying the drone, but said the drone was destroyed and the Super Scooper — a massive fixed-wing plane that can drop large amounts of water — was damaged.

“It put a hole in the wing,”...

• VenomXts
• Replies: 126
• Forum: News

• 

The culprit drone has been identified (by forum members) as a DJI Mini 3. It weighs under 250 grams. Thus, Remote ID is not required.

After this incident, what do you bet that ALL drones will be required to have Remote ID, eventually, regardless of weight. The pilot of this drone needs to be tarred and feathered (virtually, by the drone enthusiast community).

Mark

 

[Droning on and on...]

After this incident, what do you bet that ALL drones will be required to have Remote ID, eventually, regardless of weight. The pilot of this drone needs to be tarred and feathered (virtually, by the drone enthusiast community).

I believe this a certainty, and given this incident, I have no objection at all. We'll probably see this rule change in record time... less than a year.

This is one of the things RID should be used for, in my opinion.

It ain't over, though. It's a DJI drone. It has a serial no. It has an account at DJI. There will be a subpoena.

 

[Calson]

Now the question is how to get birds to comply. Bird strikes predominately occur at altitudes below 500 feet in the same airspace as drones.

Per the FAA "mourning doves are the most common species of bird struck by civil aircraft in USA, accounting for about 11% of the birds identified to exact species, 1990–2023. Waterfowl (ducks and geese) account for only 4% of the strikes but are responsible for 27% of the strikes that cause damage to the aircraft. About 70% of strikes occur between 0 and 500 feet above ground level. From 1990-2023, there were 31 strikes with commercial aircraft at heights from 20,000-32,000 feet AGL.

Far more damage and deaths are the result of inattentive drivers using their cell phones (and usually in an illegal manner). This is an easy problem to fix but no one in a position to do so wants to upset the service providers.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Now the question is how to get birds to comply. Bird strikes predominately occur at altitudes below 500 feet in the same airspace as drones.

Well, start leveling some fines.