this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
264 points (100.0% liked)

News

36942 readers
1781 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

A firefighting super scooper battling the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles collided with a privately-owned DJI drone, causing significant damage and delaying operations.

The FBI is investigating to identify the drone's owner, as unauthorized drones near wildfires pose risks to firefighting efforts.

Temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) are in place, but violations can lead to prosecution, fines, and jail time.

The damaged aircraft, one of only two available, is out of service until Monday.

all 35 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 103 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh. its a DJI. that thing should have serials stamped all over it; one phone call and boom. they got a name.

[–] POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] SpacePirate@lemmy.ml 64 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The largest brand for commercial drones.

[–] POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com 9 points 1 year ago
[–] name_NULL111653@pawb.social 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The drone manufacturer. There's serial numbers and whatnot on all those parts.

[–] POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com 9 points 1 year ago
[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 71 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] coyootje@lemmy.world 62 points 1 year ago

Deservedly so. No-fly zones exist for a reason and many, many people just don't care about that stuff. Where I live there's a lot of them and I regularly see people fly drones there.

I wish they were more strict about fining people here as well, we have an ambulance chopper stationed close by and I don't even want to imagine it colliding with a drone and crashing in a densely populated neighborhood.

[–] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"I'd just like to stress, that technique, using that super scooper aircraft, are our most effective technique to fight fires like this, and when this happens, it puts everybody's lives at risk,"

Sure, but just think of the cool footage that person was getting! /s

[–] Dlayknee@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Ngl, I'm kind of surprised the owner hasn't already posted the "sick closeup footage" they shot online.

[–] podperson@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Great week for drone dumbassery in California. This one also happened in our local paragliding community:

Updated link (looks like the first one was updated): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrbpRtxqlbM

[–] chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I saved this for later and just tried to watch it. The video is down. I'm curious what this incident is. I fly a paramotor myself.

[–] podperson@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Weird - wonder if they keep getting taken down. Here’s one that works (today at least):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzzcc6tM3UE

Drone operator hit a PG at Torrey Pines, PG landed safely (lucky), drone operator approached the pilot to exchange phone numbers but then ran away before info was exchanged. Later threatened the PG pilot with legal action if he didn’t take the video down.

[–] chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks! Luckily, drones aren't really much of a threat to us, at least not consumer drones. Autonomous delivery drones though...yikes.

Watching this video is what caused me to come to the conclusion that those kinds of drones aren't really a threat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX_r82srLdE

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just to add, there are far more than 2 planes in the area now. The Canadians sent at least one, and the US military surged it's entire aerial firefighting fleet to Los Angeles. So there's something like 3 water bombers, 10 helicopter water scoops, and several fire retardant bombers.

[–] enbyecho@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn't see it say that anywhere and there's already conspiracy theories about the Democrats not helping. So I figured the extra knowledge couldn't hurt.

[–] enbyecho@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I merely meant that type of plane is important since they have different roles.

In fact the air resources on the LA fires are significantly greater than you outlined. I haven't been following it at that level but for the Palisades fire alone Watchduty says there are 5123 Personnel, 540 engines, 66 dozers, 60 water tenders and 44 helicopters. I haven't seen a list for fixed wing but it's way more than 3 tankers - they've been drawing S2s, LATs and VLATs from all over the state. And there are of course more aircraft from other states.

BTW if you are interested the Watchduty app is great for this info. I also use FlightAware and/or FlightRadar24 to see aircraft in the sky. And yes I nerd out on this stuff - I used to do fire reporting for my community.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

That is fascinating and yeah I'll probably bookmark that.

[–] dnick@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel like any law enforcement official that says anything to the effect of 'if you do X, you WILL be prosecuted' is doing a disservice to the entire process.

Exaggerating or oversimplifying just makes your statements fall flat. When what they mean is 'If you do X, and we catch you, and we have enough evidence, and the prosecutor decides it's worth pursuing, and you can't afford a good lawyer, we WILL (probably) try getting you thrown in jail'.

Say something simply like 'We have a x% prosecution rate for this type of crime' and it makes the risk more real instead of 'if you do this you WILL be prosecuted' while everyone who was actually considering doing the thing has either done it a dozen times already, or sees others doing it with apparent impunity.

[–] IzzyScissor@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Broadcasting police ineptitude does seem like something good to make known. Might motivate them to do their job.

[–] dnick@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

No, but it's better than lying by implying a 100% percent conviction rate.

[–] april@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I thought DJI drones software locked the no fly zones? How did they manage to make it go into the area?

[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To enforce something like that you would have to force the drone to connect to some online database on a regular basis, and I don’t think that’s a thing. There’s certainly no requirement that drones only fly where there’s cellular or WiFi service.

I also know of at least one company using higher end DJI drones specifically for providing services to police & fire departments, so they’d have to have some way of opting them out of such geo locks.

[–] cybersin@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

DJI drones are paired with and controlled by a smartphone app. The app downloads a map database to local storage, and the position of the drone is tracked via onboard GPS and reported back the controller app.

Of course there are exceptions for law enforcement. American police can get full auto rifles and armored vehicles. Getting an authorization for restricted airspace is nothing.

Even hobbyists can operate within certain restricted areas if they get pre-approval from local air traffic control.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

That drone owner is fucked. Hope he gets to serve time.

[–] Pazu900@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can DJI not pull flight data for an area/time frame and see who was flying it?

[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

DJI doesn’t track every one of the hundreds of thousands of drones they sell. And there’s no requirement that a drone even have an internet connection of anything like that.

[–] cybersin@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Most modern drones, (yes, DJI) are required to be registered and support Remote ID.

It does what the name suggests. The drone broadcasts its position data and registered FAA ID over Bluetooth and/or WiFi.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I have had 2 dji drones and they require Internet and account to set up. I believe they force you you to register with faa as well because I remember I did this many years ago