Re: Breaking NEWS: New York City Drone Pilots WILL NOT BE CH
FAR §91.13 (careless or reckless operation). It's their catch-all that assures a conviction for almost every case they prosecute. They *rarely* lose this charge because it is so vague.
Edit.
I just listened to the transcript, and any charges would be laughable. The only complaining subject was the helicopter pilot, and listening to his description sounds more like a UFO paranoid nut case. 2,000 feet in less than two seconds - yikes, that's a 60,000 FPM climb. Does a rocket even do that? And, " .. he has to be military. He's moving."
Not exactly a credible witness.
Then the helicopter pursues the drone. Who was being reckless?
Transcript:
Copter: What kind of contact do you have over the GW at this time?
La guardia Tower: What do you mean, what do you mean by that? What kind of contact?
C: Uh, I don't know, we just had a, uh, aircraft do a vertical climb. Pretty uh, pretty fast.
L: I don't see anything on the radar. About how high, how high did you say he went?
C: I'd say, uh, zero to about 2000 in uh, less in than two seconds. And he's got his green and reds on, he's going up, he's about [unintelligible] northbound at this time.
L: Really? I, I don't see anything on the radar.
C: I don't know, it was fast moving.
L: I'm not even showing anything, like, not even a sporadic [unintelligible].
C: Uh, he has to be military. He's moving.
L: Roger that.
C: He's right over top of us right now, Laguardia, he did a, uh 180 really quick going down the East River at this time.
C: I just want to make sure it's not a, uh, a drone.
C: And Laguardia, we're, uh, 800 feet and he's level with us at this time.
L: And, is he above you?
C: He's circling [unintelligible] up to the GW. Our, uh, our altitude, he's got to be a drone.
L: Roger that. Yeah, he's still not getting picked up on the radar.
L: And, uh, does he have lights on [unintelligible]?
C: He's got red and green lights, but he's, uh, he's trucking. He's moving fast.
C: And Laguardia, definitely a drone. He's uh, going up the streets now.
L: [unintelligible] true got to be a better way maybe to disable these guys, huh? We got to figure something out.
C: Yeah, we're gonna stay here to figure out where he puts it.
L: Yeah, no problem, take your time. You're the only ones in the airspace so can, uh, have at it.
[Unknown1]: Yeah we got drone activity up by the GW bridge, uh, we're trying to walk an R and P we got the guys operating it on the ground so, uh, hopefully we can get ah, we can get these guys, uh, collared up.
[Unknown2]: [unintelligible] me to update GW?
[Unknown1]: Well they were at the VGW now I've got, uh three-four coming up the Fairview and one-nine-three in the vicinity of.
[Unknown2]: Alright, do you want me to do anything from here?
[Unknown1]: Nope. Just, uh, just letting you know.