this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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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.

top 35 comments
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[–] FuglyDuck 103 points 5 days 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.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 64 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The largest brand for commercial drones.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago
[–] Chee_Koala 72 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] coyootje 62 points 4 days 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.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago

That is identical to mine. It's wicked cool, but I wouldn't even dream of flying it anywhere near an event like this. I enjoy zipping around my property for sure but that's it.

Whoever this is is bigly fucked. They will move heaven and earth to hunt them down.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 days 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 2 points 4 days ago

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

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours 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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day 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.

[–] Maggoty 13 points 4 days 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 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] Maggoty 3 points 4 days 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 3 points 4 days 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 1 points 4 days ago

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days 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 5 points 4 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

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

[–] april 4 points 4 days 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 4 points 4 days 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days 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 3 points 4 days ago

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

[–] Pazu900 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] IphtashuFitz 4 points 4 days 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days 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