Possible drone left on the White House lawn

If some meat-head is going to fly a drone over the White House, no regulation will stop him. You just can’t fix “stupid” or regulate “stupid”.
 
mdax said:
What a completely irresponsible way to screw our hobby...on the white house lawn...what an idiot
It was a government employee. Maybe that was the intent? Justification for more regulations?
 
Zinnware said:
mdax said:
What a completely irresponsible way to screw our hobby...on the white house lawn...what an idiot
It was a government employee. Maybe that was the intent? Justification for more regulations?

This was also my first thought....
 
Bingo. Just like we find that some of the most violent 'protesters' in many of the anti-police protests of recent, were actually undercover police inciting violence.

It would not surprise me to learn that this 'government employee' worked for (or has a close relationship with someone tied to) the FAA. Just as I don't buy the airline pilots (flying 200+ MPH on approach) who can see a 20" drone moving at <20mph. It's all show/propaganda designed to direct public opinion. It's working.
 
Conspiracy theories. I love them but don't buy them.

Whenever I hear these theories, I ask myself how big is it? How many people have to keep their mouths shut for this to work?

It's more plausible to think a pilot saw a drone on approach or a government employee crashed his drone than to believe some secret conspiracy was hatched and coordinated by a bureaucratic arm of the government.

In one post, the FAA is inept and can't tie their shoes and in the next, they have the abilities of the Mossad.
 
whoss said:
Lets see DJI explain the flyaway that landed on the White House. Why is a Governement employee flying at 3:00am? We are missing something here. Lets not rule out a late night training exercise that went wrong.
It wasn't a flyaway.
The drone flew into a tree and crashed. It's in the news report.
 
Clipper707 said:
Conspiracy theories. I love them but don't buy them.

Whenever I hear these theories, I ask myself how big is it? How many people have to keep their mouths shut for this to work?

It's more plausible to think a pilot saw a drone on approach or a government employee crashed his drone than to believe some secret conspiracy was hatched and coordinated by a bureaucratic arm of the government.

In one post, the FAA is inept and can't tie their shoes and in the next, they have the abilities of the Mossad.

Bingo
 
It is too bad the president, along with chuck schumer (the tumor) don't have rth functions. Had this guy not been a government employee his face would be plastered all over the news as a possible domestic terrorist. Funny how big government protects its own, and it's all too convenient that this occurred so soon b for the new regs are enacted. This is all a ploy by corporate America to steal the airspace from hobbyists in order to quickly implement drone delivery services which will eliminate millions of jobs. Why? For bigger profits.
 
Eastbayvision said:
This is all a ploy by corporate America to steal the airspace from hobbyists in order to quickly implement drone delivery services which will eliminate millions of jobs. Why? For bigger profits.
??? That's got to be one of the wackiest conspiracy theories yet. There's nothing at all to support it.
 
Meta4 said:
Eastbayvision said:
This is all a ploy by corporate America to steal the airspace from hobbyists in order to quickly implement drone delivery services which will eliminate millions of jobs. Why? For bigger profits.
??? That's got to be one of the wackiest conspiracy theories yet. There's nothing at all to support it.

But, if you look at the big picture, why do we need any additional federal laws for flying below 400'? I agree that using rc aircraft to harass or spy on someone should not be allowed, but the same perspective could be had by climbing a ladder or using a zoom lens from a real aircraft. I don't see any bureaucrats lining up behind banning ladders or air travel. No, this is all about contol and once again our government is working for corporations and against tax paying citizens.
 
Just watch, soon the insurance lobby will be behind federal mandates for drone insurance and safety training.
 
its unofficial, DJI have found oil and America needs an excuse to invade DJI land for reasons of national security and to protect the American way of life, oh yes and also to look after the oil rights. :mrgreen:
 
CNN - "The man operating the drone that crashed on the White House grounds called the U.S. Secret Service on Monday morning to "self-report" his involvement in the incident.

The drone's owner and operator is a government employee who said he was using the drone recreationally, a Secret Service source told CNN. He was interviewed by Secret Service agents and has been fully cooperative, Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said in a statement Monday afternoon.

"Initial indications are that this incident occurred as a result of recreational use of the device," Leary said."


"recreational use of the device" - At 3am!!! erm...
 
Yeah, something doesn't add up. I mean, I'm aware that some government departments can get over worked, and maybe are working in central DC at 3am, but I hardly see popping out to the car park at that time of night for a quick flight as a good way to deal with stress or being over worked. Maybe it's coincidental that he's a government employee, and he happens to live close to the White House? Maybe he is part of the White House staff?

Most likely, there's some detail that's not being covered properly.
 
MonsieurAnon said:
Maybe it's coincidental that he's a government employee, and he happens to live close to the White House?

Perhaps you aren't familiar with DC. The White House is in the middle of a densely populated area where a large percentage of the people work for the government.

The sky isn't falling. The government will use this event to publicize the no-fly zone and that will pretty much be the extent of it.

-- Roger
 
Unfortunately, the government relies on the fear mothering media for it's publicity, and now the conversation has moved onto the terrorist threats posed by these devices. If they ban drones, surely they also must ban pressure cookers, box cutters and the Internet because these too are tools which terrorists could use.
 
Eastbayvision said:
Unfortunately, the government relies on the fear mothering media for it's publicity, and now the conversation has moved onto the terrorist threats posed by these devices. If they ban drones, surely they also must ban pressure cookers, box cutters and the Internet because these too are tools which terrorists could use.

You make a good point. They didn't ban pressure cookers, box cutters, and the Internet. They won't ban toy helicopters.

This is all "deja vu" for me. Years ago rocketry hobbyists were saying the same kind of things - that the government was going to shut us down and ban larger rockets. The arguments were very similar to the ones made here about our 'copters.

You know what actually happened? We won a lawsuit against the BATFE which had incorrectly categorized our motors as explosives. And, the FAA worked with us to draft new regulations that allow us to fly larger rockets without notification or waivers and ease the process of getting waivers to fly even larger rockets.

-- Roger
 
Good story, Roger. I'm happy (and hopeful) to hear the FAA worked with the rocket hobby on that one.

This White House incident isn't so extraordinary as to make me concoct or believe conspiracy theories.

We thought there would be swarms of new drones with inexperienced operators working the sticks on the 26th of December. There are millions of people working for the government, and a lot of them are concentrated in Washington DC.

Is it too farfetched to believe that:
- a government employee might own a Phantom?
- that someone might try to fly where he's not supposed to?
- that a Phantom might crash?

A guy crashed his Phantom flying where he wasn't supposed to. This adds up for me. It's happened before and it will happen again.

If the government wanted to "stage" an incident, how about a drone landing within 2 meters of the President while he was giving a speech? This actually happened in Europe to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKV6g47hgRs
 

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