Drone pilot could face charges in connection with deadly crash

[N017RW]

Radio jamming is illegal.
Maybe for super elite military or govt. operations and such it can happen, but are you really suggesting 100 watts?
Have you considered all the other communications disrupted to hope you send a drone to RTH?

 

[Joza]

I'm new to having a drone... like within the month and reading things like this make me stop and wonder just how stupid can some people can be? And yes... this IS why we can't have nice things. Regardless of whether the person would have lived or died is not the point nor our determination to make, this idiot impeded the medivac crew from doing it's job. I hope he does get hit with a charge and hit hard. Maybe the other idiots out there will take note, but I know this is wishful thinking.

 

[anotherlab]

I'm playing devil's advocate here so don't get pissed at me. But, what relevant FAR was violated? Maybe he was flying in the area and was totally unaware of the accident....

FWIW, This is the map of the general area of where the accident was reported, M-81 near Prospect Ave in Indianfields Township, MI. The accident happened around 4:50 PM. It's flat open area. If you were flying a drone close enough to accident to interfere with a Flight Care helicopter and be easily located by the LEO, there is no way a reasonable person would have not know that there was a serious car accident there.

Remember, the news reports say the drone was flying over the scene of the accident.

I'm not trying to pick on the poster that I am replying to, but some situations are clearer than others.

 

[NRJ]

Drone pilot could face charges in connection with deadly crash

CARO, MI (WNEM) -
A drone pilot could face charges after authorities say the unmanned aircraft kept a Flight Care helicopter from landing to transport a victim to the hospital in a deadly crash...

The helicopter had to abort its landing and pass around the scene while police found the pilot of the drone.
---
It just takes one idiot!

Their are no real facts here. The wording of the article is questionable as well. Just something for a journalist to get in some hype about another horrible drone incident. You have to read into these stories and pick out the facts if there are any. All news stories have to be further investigated before using them as talking points. ALL news stories are just like advertising, mostly lies, deception, and misinformation. Truthfully, don't fall for their garbage. If you talk up their story without your own further research, you are as guilty of the lie as the one who wrote it.

 

[Lookindown]

Totaly agree NRJ.... maybe it will come down to "intent" . Charges have to be proved and that will need facts not news headlines and press reports

 

[PsychoBob]

Radio jamming is illegal.
Maybe for super elite military or govt. operations and such it can happen, but are you really suggesting 100 watts?
Have you considered all the other communications disrupted to hope you send a drone to RTH?

100 watt 10 watt. Cell phone jammers are cheap when you buy from China. I guess MY point wasn't quite clear enough. They can down a drone many different ways if they needed to. I think all Life Flight helicopters should be equipped with drone jammers to deal with fools who aren't smart enough to fly their drone somewhere else. I'm sure it won't be long before the FCC and law enforcement work something out to deal with the problem. Unfortunately it won't be dealt with through education found here. All responsible drone pilots will ultimately pay for the irresponsible idiots not smart enough to fly a drone responsibly.

 

[N017RW]

As a 5 decade amateur radio operator I doubt jamming will ever be allowed. It's not discriminatory.
The ISM band (industrial, scientific, medical) currently used to control these toys is used for many types of devices.
I agree further controls may be developed and employed but it won't be by jamming. When you purchase one of these Chinese disrupters your likely to be flagged.
Let's hope you don't need some critical service or function provided when a jammer decides to take actions into their own hands.

 

[deltamike]

We need a few prosecutions of those who fly carelessly or ignorantly.

OH YES PLEASE.

One prosecution in the UK,

UNSAFE DRONE PILOT CASE MOVES TO COURT ROOM | Drone Hire From Drone Safe Register™

but new people STILL don't learn or be bothered to check the Dont's and Do's.

Its a never ending educational task.

However, despite all the discussions and points of view in this post, there was a quad and there was helicopter and that's all that matters. The quad is a possible danger to the helicopter so landing had to be aborted. End of all discussions so far as I am concerned.

QED

 

[WV. Rootman]

As a 5 decade amateur radio operator I doubt jamming will ever be allowed. It's not discriminatory.
The ISM band (industrial, scientific, medical) currently used to control these toys is used for many types of devices.
I agree further controls may be developed and employed but it won't be by jamming. When you purchase one of these Chinese disrupters your likely to be flagged.
Let's hope you don't need some critical service or function provided when a jammer decides to take actions into their own hands.

I worked at a federal prison and they couldn't jam illegal cell phone use by the prisoners. This place was in the middle of no where. Funny they can't stop prisoners from getting cell phones. "Can you hear me now? "

There are many more people flying drones then what we have on this forum. What education do they have?

 

[jlrsn]

If he passes less than 500 ft horizontally (sparsely settled area) or 2000 ft otherwise, while less than 500 ft vertically from your home on the hill, he's likely in contravention of FAR 91.119 . But I'm not really completely sure of the interpretation of that para. d.

Get binoculars and his N number. Look him up - shouldn't be hard to locate. Call him and ask him to fly neighbourly and avoid your hilltop due to the noise.

There's too much misunderstanding about what is legal regarding minimum altitudes for helicopters. Following is what is legal :

Per FAR 91.119:
(d)Helicopters If the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface -

(1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA.

 

[Razorback1]

Although this is bad the headline is highly misleading and that's what the author was shooting for making it sound like the drone caused the helicopter to crash #FAKENEWS

 

[WV. Rootman]

Although this is bad the headline is highly misleading and that's what the author was shooting for making it sound like the drone caused the helicopter to crash #FAKENEWS

What helicopter crash?

 

[Razorback1]

What helicopter crash?

When you look at the article just read the headline

 

[WV. Rootman]

When you look at the article just read the headline

I did.

 

[Razorback1]

Ok not a helicopter but the headline implies that a drone caused a crash in which it didnt

 

[A.L.E.X]

I cringe every time a story like this pops up. So anyone who loves drones, buy it now. You will never have as much flight freedom as you did yesterday.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

There's too much misunderstanding about what is legal regarding minimum altitudes for helicopters. Following is what is legal :

Per FAR 91.119:
(d)Helicopters If the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface -

(1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA.

So what does the "each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA." mean specifically.

 

[Bill Kay]

I say throw the book at the drone pilot.

That said, given the description of the accident in the article I doubt the driver would have survived in any case. IOW it would be hard to lay negligent homicide (or whatever that jurisdiction calls it) when the primary cause of death was poor tires and excessive speeds for the wet conditions.

OTOH, a civil wrongful death suit against the drone operator would face a much lower bar.

Not totally correct. The poor tires and excessive speed were the cause of an accident with injuries. A good attorney will show that the inability to land promptly and remove the injured to a hospital in a timely manner caused the death. Therefore the delay is the cause of the persons death. Now this will depend on expert testimony, coroner report and many other depositions to prove to a jury. Meanwhile the drone operator is hoping to get a not guilty and is paying for their defense until that time.

 

[Russ43Phantom]

In my case, there is a hospital in town with a heli landing pad. I leave my phone number with the hospital's operations department when I fly near the hospital. If there is incoming or outgoing heli traffic, I will be called. Having done that, the heli pilots say that they fly well over 500' and, when directly over the landing pad, they decend. They NEVER fly over tree tops (as in Vietnam movies). Sounds like the heli pilot, in the case under discussion above, is violating rules. That said, manned aircraft always have the right of way. This is where a clear VLOS of the airspace around the drone, commensorate with the heli speed, is critical.

 

[Terry G]

There is a lot of negative on drones. I just don't understand everything in the story. I am ignorant about the danger here. If the helicopter hovered over the area, would the drone pilot vacated the area as FAA states? Maybe that's all it would have taken.

I have a helicopter fly under 500 ft. Over my house which worries me almost every day. I can't tell who it is. I give way as fast as I can, but he is flying fast. That's what I get for living on the top of a mountain.

We live on the shore of Lake Michigan and I often fly the shore line. The attached short video shows roughly the area I fly. I have had Coast Guard helicopters, A10's, gyro copters, seaplanes, experimentals, ultralights, Apache helicopters, corporate jets, and a 4 engine prop plane I couldn't identify fly in the same airspace! They all love to fly the shoreline. So who needs to be regulated??