Drone Crash At Fourth Of July Fireworks

 

 

By Rick Boettger

 

This is an update of previous articles in the Konk Life Blast describing the crash of a drone helicopter that was videoing the fireworks from above on the 4th of July at the White Street Pier. I’ve spoken at length with the Federal Aviation Administration authority investigating the case and the county’s top legal authority as well.

 

 

To recap, right at the end of the fireworks spectators in the West Martello fort were shocked by a furiously buzzing drone helicopter crashing in their midst just as they were picking up their things to leave. It was bucking about like the largest hornet you could imagine, and cut one man, Bob Hans, before they could immobilize it with a chair leg.

 

 

The drone’s owner appeared on the beach below the fort, apologizing and saying it cost $20,000. The spectators were pretty damn pissed off, having already been “spooked” by the drone’s aerial swoops in the 54 minutes it hovered above the pier, waiting like all of us for the tardy fireworks. We demanded to see the owner’s ID, which we photographed while waiting for the police to respond to the incident.

 

 

At this point the story took a different turn. The police sent two officers to us, but the first saw a man passed out in his car near the Martello fence where the officer had parked. So he called us in as “GOA (Gone On Arrival),” even though there were about a dozen of us milling around the gate. He also told the second officer responding to our call to help him with the DUI. Eventually a third officer wrapped up the DUI.

 

 

Meanwhile the spectators politely tried to ask the officers if anyone was coming for us. They ignored us. Eventually the drone owner snagged his drone through the fence and left, as did the puzzled spectators after waiting for an hour.

 

 

Was a crime committed? While it would seem crashing a buzzing engine on people is just plain wrong, the laws about drones are in extreme flux at the present time. In an extensive interview with the FAA inspector doing what he called “a very serious investigation” of the incident, he could not be quoted on laws governing drones because they are being re-written as we speak.

 

 

He directed me to an FAA “Notice of Interpretation with Request to Comment.” It turns out the “drones” like the one that crashed on us are mostly governed by rules for model aircraft. In 2012 the FAA updated its 1981 rules on them due to their increasing sophistication and use. The FAA never uses the now-common word “drone,” borrowed from the fearsome military planes we use to kill from above (the son of a locally prominent doctor now pilots these, I just found out).

 

 

Our laws grant liberal use of what we call drones as long as they are being “flown for recreational and hobby purposes.” But even then, rules apply, like the operator maintaining personal line-of-sight contact, not within five miles of an airport, and weighing under 55 pounds. Flying them to take photos of property for real estate sales, for example, is not recreational.

 

 

In my conversation with the drone operator, he said at first he was “doing it to make money for the kids,” but could not tell me any kids’ organization he was involved with. He also said he was insured, which might mean he was indeed registered with the FAA, which requires such insurance.

 

 

We wanted to hold the drone, sadly damaged by our efforts to safely hold it down, until the police came, but when he “stole” it back since the police never came, that was appropriate. If a kid’s football lands in your yard, you don’t own it. I’m still holding his $199 battery that fell off, which he is welcome to retrieve whenever he wants it.

 

 

My meeting with the state attorney revealed what I suspected, that this was entirely a federal matter. In fact, a state law has restricted our police from using drones in surveilling suspects as being “unreasonable search.”

 

 

The input I will give the FAA on its new “Special Rules” will be that drone operators turn the damn thing’s propellers off when they crash among people. If the guy owning this Phantom had, no one would have been scared or injured. We would have laughed and tossed it to him over the fence, and no one would be kvetching about the police.

 

 

Final uplifting thought: Progressives should be pleased with our KWPD for blowing off an entire group of rich old white folks like us. I was actually a little scared to approach closer than within 40 feet of the officer. I didn’t want him to abruptly Taser me for “obstructing an arrest” or some such. It’s not just the homeless and minorities, it’s all of us who now need fear them.

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