From the Associated Press:
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — A man is facing charges after deputies say he was flying a video camera-equipped drone that hindered the landing of a medical helicopter at an accident scene.
Kele Stanley, of Springfield, said he’s been unfairly charged and would have landed it immediately if he knew the medical helicopter was en route.
“I’m not an idiot,” he said.
The hobbyist was flying the $4,000 drone over a crash scene on Saturday morning to shoot photos and video.
Authorities said both fire officials and a Clark County sheriff’s deputy told Stanley to stop flying his remote-controlled aircraft because the helicopter was preparing to land, and that he refused. The helicopter was able to land and depart safely from the scene.
Stanley is facing a felony charge of obstructing official business and misdemeanor charges of misconduct at an emergency and disorderly conduct. He pleaded not guilty during a court appearance Monday and said he’s going to hire a lawyer to fight the charges.
Stanley, a 31-year-old copy-machine repairman and videographer, said he flew his remote-controlled “hexacopter” about 75 feet above where a pickup had hit a tree in Moorefield Township near Springfield. He said he was shooting the video as a hobby and would have turned it over to local television stations, as he has done before.
There currently are no regulations in Ohio governing private use of the unmanned aircraft, although law enforcement agencies must get special permits to use them. The Federal Aviation Administration bars the commercial use of drones.
(Photo above: Clark County Jail)
((Photo below:/Clark County Sheriff's Office)
Comments
Every industry that's has developed self-regulation has been better off than any operating solely under govt regs.
Besides, when we talk about airspace, we're not talking about personal property, are we?
I am and have been an AMA member for a while. I have been reading all there press releases with rearguard to FPV flights and such. I totally agree with what they are doing except in one respect, which is they are trying to get involved in the commercial use of uavs and a hobby group like the AMA has no business in something thats a hobby to them.
If you fly the simplest RC, at some point you'll need to be a repairman.
It seems if you are a repairman of some sort and have a drone your asking for trouble. THis guy was a copymachine repairman and the guy whose plane flew into the BAE submarine base was also a tv repairman.
What is it with repairmen ?
I was a FF/EMT/LT for 13 years before I moved for work recently. If it was my scene, and someone was flying a UAV over it taking pictures, I could care less as long as it was not in a position that put us at risk. If it was high enough and laterally far enough away so it wouldn't hit us if it fell, I really don't mind. Knock yourself out, take some cool video. I like fire-porn.
If there was a helicopter responding or already on scene, or it was not being flow in a safe manner, I would tell them to land it and keep it on the ground.. Non-compliance would involve the police on scene to force compliance. If the police were not on scene or not able to deal with it, that is what fire hoses are for. I'm quite sure a 2.5" nozzle at about 60 pounds would remove the hazard from the sky :p
I hope they throw the book at him. The authorities ask you to land you land. I am sure there are witnesses to the incident proving that he was told. This is another abuse of these machines that will make it harder for people that want to use them for good and follow the rules.
And furthermore whether he was told to land or not it was none of his business flying over a accident recording the incident.
This is basically the same logic (or lack thereof) in banning guns from law abiding citizens, because some thug in a ghetto hood shot his dealer.
I am terribly sorry for my first comment, and take full responsibility for starting the tone of drone-focused arguments on this post. My first comment was intended to be a joke, playing on the humorous ways in which the FAA tends to stick their noses into situation in which they either have A) no jurisdiction or B) they do not belong. Apparently people decided to play FAA in the comments.
As for the actual situation, the fact that a "drone" was the tool in which the man broke the law doesn't change the fact that the MAN broke the law. From a legal standpoint, the situation could have been "Darth Vader, while playing the Star Wars theme song on the bagpipes, wearing a kilt, and riding a unicycle, was arrested for jumping his unicycle over a crash site, interfering with emergency first responders and obstructing the landing of an emergency medical helicopter," and the argument would still be the same. The question isn't, "should Darth Vader have been playing the Starwars theme song on bagpipes while a unicycle, or would Beethoven with a violin on a tricycle have been appropriate for him?" The only questions the law cares about are obviously, "Why was Darth Vader in the way of the helicopter at all?" and "Was he actually in the way of the helicopter, disrupting the efforts of emergency response teams?" The pilot could have stood in the landing zone and would be treated n differently in the eyes of the law than he is currently being treated. The drone was an extension of him in this case.
Starting a new organization and gaining credibility would be a very difficult thing in a short space of time.
The AMA already has the respect of the FAA (to a degree) and many members here are members of the AMA.
I would have thought it would have been far more useful for drone flyers to lobby the AMA rather than try and start a new group.
The reason the AMA does not care is because it is headed by elderly men who don't understand the technology and don't understand why people would want to fly a model without being in direct control of it.
The reason that elderly men run the AMA is because nobody else can be bothered standing for positions.
Take a look at the executive team:
http://www.modelaircraft.org/aboutama/organization/ec/contact.aspx
All these people have backgrounds in scale model flying so of course they aren't going to show much concern about FPV or drone flying.
Why aren't members of this community putting their hands up to stand for executive positions on the AMA so the voice is heard?
Monroe, you'd make a great candidate :)
I also notice that there are no AMA recognized special interest groups for either FPV or UAS.
http://www.modelaircraft.org/membership/sig.aspx
There is no way the AMA is going to care about this stuff unless AMA members lobby them to do so.
+1 ^^^
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