What criminal charge for drone fliers who collide?

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Recently in the news is radio controlled quad copters have been involved in near misses as high as 4000' AGL with passenger aircraft, as well as more frequently at lesser approach altitudes. I'm thinking X number of counts of Criminal Recklessness X being number of flight crew and passengers aboard any a/c that collides with one and safely lands. Reckless homicide if a crash and loss of life. This is likely people flying their quads FPV that are irresponsible in this way, since some of the altitudes reported would be outside of LOS.
 
IIRC they are limited to 400 ft, I'm sure there is already a regulation on this. These quads are no different than any other radio controlled aircraft over the last 50 years, only difference is the media reporting on them.
 
They are not allowed around here....police will come by if they see them fly too high....but then again I'm not that far from an airport.....
 
My friends and I had a brief period in Jr High when we built and launched model rockets.

Most of them were pretty lame. But some of the multi-stagers actually worked and worked well.

We were launching these things in the flight paths for NAS Dallas and DFW airport.

Sooo....assuming that one of these would have hit an airliner, or Navy/Marine aircraft, we would have been guilty of criminal recklessness.

A cop actually came out and watched us once. Just to make sure we weren't firing fireworks during a drought. He was all smiles.
 
Originally Posted By: Kira
Hello, Please explain.
AGL = ?
FPV = ?
LOS = ?
NAS = ?

TY = Thank You



AGL = Above Ground Level
LOS = Line Of Sight
NAS = Naval Air Station.

They got me on FPV too.

I imagine there will be ramifications from the FAA as well; unlike pilots, drone operators don't have a license that can be revoked, so civil penalties/fines will probably be levied. This is just for violating the 400-foot rule. I imagine that there will be prosecutions for reckless endangerment and possibly terrorism (at the extreme) also.

Plus, operators should be held accountable for any and all damage from their irresponsible operation, which could get expensive...if their drone gets ingested into the wrong jet engine, we're talking upwards of half a million dollars.
 
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The preferred method by the FAA to punish pilots is civil penalties, up to $10,000 per violation. I imagine it would be reasonably straightforward to manage 2-3 violations, per near miss, if the culprit is identified. Make an example of a few morons, and I imagine the prospect of $20k in fines might make a potential drone flyer (I hesitate to call them pilots) reticent about launching in the vicinity of actual airplanes.
 
The message of mainstream news is the commercial so when it comes to aviation the
reporting is superficial, mediocre and down right painful to watch...
 
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These are smallish devices would disappear from view of the operator over about 100 feet AGL I'd imagine. Thus making controlled flight very unlikely.

Don't operate near airports is law up here.
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato


Plus, operators should be held accountable for any and all damage from their irresponsible operation, which could get expensive...if their drone gets ingested into the wrong jet engine, we're talking upwards of half a million dollars.



Ugghh...once in every long while, we would see Harriers

Rolls Royce Pegasus....
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that would have been a lot for a 12 year old to pay for. Of course it doesn't say much about your military aircraft if it gets taken out by a bit of cardboard tube and a balsa wood or plastic nosecone.
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: CT8
BE smart and don't put your name on the toy.
Be smarter and don't misuse it.
Not going to happen.
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato

They got me on FPV too.

I imagine th


First Person View. They have a screen on their radio control console that receives a live feed from a video cam on the quad copter so it is sort of like flying a real life flight simulator or something. So equipped, they can go to high altitudes. There are also cellular wireless based transmitter setups where the handheld console is connected via cellular wireless and the quad copter receives on cellular band so teamed with an FPV setup this basically makes the higher end quad copters almost like the military drones in that they can be flown out of sight at high altitudes many miles from the operator, limited only by battery life for staying aloft. These ones can be more sizable than the hobby quads and are gaining in popularity among serious fliers who have the money to put into it. There are some videos on youtube of flight vids from these types, in some videos they appear to be flying around clouds in a manner that would violate VFR (Visual Flight Rules) for a civil aircraft. Imagine flying IFR descent through the clouds @ 200 kts and colliding with a quad copter sporting a 4 foot diameter in size and who knows how much in weight/mass. Could cause serious airframe damage or completely take out an engine. Kill flight crew if collides with windshield. This is serious stuff.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
This kind of [censored] right here:







Yup...illegal and dangerous to the manned vehicles in the same airspace.
 
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