The FAA is investigating a mid-air collision between a plane helping fight the Los Angeles fires and a ‘civilian drone’.
On January 9 at around 1:00pm, a Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper plane fighting the LA fires was ‘struck by a civilian drone’.
The incident
The Super Scooper plane had flown out to the Pacific Ocean and loaded up on around 1,500 gallons of water before heading back in to target part of the blaze, CNN reports.
Fire Captain II, Paramedic and Public Information Officer for Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), Erik Scott, took to Twitter to share information about the incident explaining the Super Scooper Quebec 1 was ‘struck by a civilian drone that was not assigned to the Palisades fire’, while flying in the area of the blaze.
The drone was subsequently flying in an airspace, which has been restricted since Tuesday (January 7).
Scott detailed: “Quebec 1 sustained wing damage and remains grounded and out of service. There were no reported injuries.”
The FAA are reported as still investigating the incident to find out who was flying the drone in the restricted airspace with authorities issuing an urgent warning to any other drone owners.
The warning
Scott’s post continues: “We would like to remind everyone that flying a drone in the midst of firefighting efforts is a federal crime and punishable by up to 12 months in prison or a fine of up to $75,000.”
Indeed, Chief Anthony C. Marrone echoed in a press conference: “Flying a drone in a restricted area if not only dangerous but it’s illegal.
“We do have our federal partners behind the scenes, are going to be implementing procedures to follow drones in our two large fire areas and they will be able to identify who the operator of that drone is.
“The most important thing to know is if you fly a drone at one of these bush fires, all aerial operations will be shut down and we certainly don’t want to have that happen.”
With the presence of a drone causing the grounding of all aircraft this subsequently slows emergency response to the fires and risks lives.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a statement reading: “The FAA treats these violations seriously and immediately considers swift enforcement action for these offenses.”
UNILAD has contacted the FAA for further comment.
You can support those affected by the fires by donating to the Red Cross online, by calling (800) 733-2767 or texting REDCROSS to 90999.
