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Phantom pilot arrested

Posted by Chris Anderson on October 18, 2013 at 11:50am

The pilot of the Phantom that crashed on a Manhattan street earlier this month has been arrested, ABC reports:

David Zablidowsky of Brooklyn has been charged with "Reckless Endangerment" for allegedly losing control of a helicopter drone at "an unreasonable height creating a substantial risk of serious physical injury". 

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Comments

  • Ben Norris October 22, 2013 at 12:20pm

    @bergsprekken if a birdstrike can take down a plane then a carbon fibre/metal quadcopter certainly can too!

  • MR60
    Hugues October 22, 2013 at 12:03pm

    Isn't it normal to arrest a phantom at Halloween ? ;)

  • Jota Parro October 22, 2013 at 9:54am

    this is bad for all of us

  • LTMNO October 22, 2013 at 6:51am

    I want to know what they did with the Phantom... interesting that the Business Man immediately took the SD Card... or did he take the whole thing and brought that to the police?  Its details like this that I am more interested in.  ;-)

    I am sure if it was the Phantom Vision 2 that it wouldn't have flown very far with all the 5.8GHz interference in NYC.

    Don't get me wrong, I still think the PV2 looks amazing...

  • Mike October 22, 2013 at 6:31am

    The noise surrounding this seems to drown out the noise of the real issues surrounding drones and how many civilians they kill...hmmmm...

  • bergsprekken October 22, 2013 at 2:47am

    From the article

    From article:

    Tristani says the FAA has to get a handle on this because drones will grow in popularity and even the small ones pose a threat to aircraft.

    "Can it affect the engines of an aircraft, most certainly. Can it penetrate the metal fuselage, most certainly," he said.

    A quad/rc model penetrating the metal fuselage of a real airplane? really??

    Is what they mean that a rc model could go through the body of a real airplane?

  • Splat01 October 21, 2013 at 8:23am

    Brent,

    No, the reckless endangerment started when he flew over a congested area. They only reason they can attempt to prosecute is because the operator crashed and the memory card was recovered, and they now know who was responsible.

  • Dean Miller October 20, 2013 at 12:46am

    Agreed Josh, the result was the same as if he just chucked it off his balcony without plugging the battery in.  It was reckless (& stoopid)  and it endangered the people below.  Should be charged with existing laws not even related to FAA.

  • Josh Potter October 19, 2013 at 7:44am

    The guy was reckless; I don't have a problem with this.  

  • HeliStorm October 18, 2013 at 11:22pm
    Very good point Gary. We will ultimately need to see how this and Trappy's situation play out. I think it will be a defining moment for UAS in the US. No puns intended.
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