An Oregon Coast newspaper first reported last week on the downing of the unmanned aerial vehicle being used by a contractor for Consumers Power, Inc., to inspect its transmission lines. The drone started a fire when it crashed, which the contractor was able to quickly extinguish. The power company notified area customers of the planned drone surveys a week or more prior.
According to an affidavit of probable cause filed in a County Circuit Court Wednesday, the contractor was surveying a power pole on Aug. 23, when he heard three pops. The drone operator, who was wearing a high-visibility vest and hard hat, attempted to land the craft, but it malfunctioned and its battery caught fire several feet above the ground. The contractor reported the downing of the $25,000 drone, which was a total loss, to the County Sheriff’s Office.
The affidavit said photos of the house were recovered from the drone that showed a man standing at an open window holding a rifle or a pellet gun, which the contractor showed to the deputy investigating the incident. The deputy compared the image to the suspect’s driver’s license photo and determined they resembled each other.
The drone pilot said when he and a colleague, who was in a marked company truck nearby at the time of the crash, were putting out the drone fire, a man approached them and asked what happened, according to the affidavit. The pilot told him someone interfered with the drone in flight — that he’d inspected thousands of power poles and nothing like this had ever happened before.
“(The pilot) told me the man asked if he was with the power company,” the deputy wrote in the affidavit. “(The pilot) told me he said yes” and that “upon hearing this, the man abruptly said he had to go, and drove away in a white vehicle.”
The pilot found two presume bullet holes in the drone, one in the frame below the battery and one in the battery itself. A drone’s lithium ion battery can catch fire when punctured.
The pilot also told the deputy he had a lot of experience with firearms, and the shots he heard sounded like they came from a rifle with a suppressor.
The deputy visited the persons address Aug. 29, where he saw a "white vehicle" parked, and told him he was there to speak to him about the drone. The person said he knew the craft crashed and caught fire, and that he would not speak to the deputy about it without his attorney present.
The deputy told the suspect he was under arrest and that shooting down a drone was a felony in Oregon.
“(the suspect) said something similar to ‘Even on my own property?’” the affidavit reads. The deputy said the power company, and thus its contractor, had an easement and thus right to access to a pole on his property.
He was booked into Lincoln County Jail on a Class C felony count of criminal mischief and violation of Oregon Revised Statute 837.995. The charging document filed by the Lincoln County District Attorney’s Office Wednesday includes only the first count.
Shooting down a drone is also a federal crime, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, but the agency has historically left enforcement to states.
The suspect was granted release on the condition he not contact the victim, and his arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 12.
Edited By OP to adhere to forum Rule 13
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