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Comment by dmitrygr | Hacker News Reader

I hope they find the perp and hand him a reasonable jail sentence. A few decades should do. You CANNOT fly anything within 5nm of a towered airport without first contacting their tower. This was within 3nm of KNUQ.

This time he only hit a power line. Next time he'll collide with one of those 4-engine WW2-era trainer planes they fly out if KNUQ for practice at 500AGL...

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For anyone else who might be slightly confused (like I initially was), "nm" here means "nautical mile"[1], not "nanometer".

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile

Thank you! I was about to say, "yes, you cannot fly within 5 nanometers, due to Pauli exclusion forces..."

Surely you don't think a prison sentence is warranted for a nonviolent offense such as this? Maybe if he had flown the drone with the intent to hit a plane in that airfield, that might be a different story. But more likely, he may have just not known the law, or realized he was still in the offending zone.

That’s like saying we should lock people up who drive >15 mph over some speed limit that they didn't notice (which is also breaking the law). “This time he only hit a power line. Next time he’ll collide with a bus full of children.”

Its a little different here. He was clearly being exceedingly reckless, and power outages cost lives all the time.

Jail is probably excessive, a very hefty fine and a ban from flying drones again seems more appropriate to me.

Are you serious that you would advocate for a multi-decade sentence for what this man did?

He could have brought down a plane on landing (moffet field flies planes low over mountain view often), cut power to a hospital, had the broken line kill someone. This action was easily more dangerous to society and those around him than driving a tank on city streets while drunk

Yes I am serious.

I think there should be a serious punishment but lengthy jail time may not be the best answer. I would fully support some period of house arrest, lengthy community service, and whopping big fines.

In the one incident I'm aware of an operator crashed his drone at the Seattle Pride Parade, striking a woman in the head. He received a $500 fine and a 30 day jail sentence. The city attorney was aiming for 90 days of jail time.

You can fly a plane into a restricted airspace and get off without criminal charges. It's completely unreasonable to expect a multi-decade sentence for something like this.

I also dislike drones around people (I'm a climber, and have had a drone fly by me while navigating rock 300' off the ground), but come on.

You can fly a plane into a restricted airspace and get off without criminal charges.

About once every two weeks, somebody seriously violates restricted airspace in the US, and it leads to a close encounter with an F-16, F-15, or one of Homeland Security's helicopters. They will be forced to land. So far, the USAF hasn't had to shoot down anybody, but general aviation pilots who've been intercepted report it is a scary experience. Once they're on the ground, they will be detained and interrogated by law enforcement.

Once it's established that they're not a terrorist, the FAA takes over. There's usually a check ride with an FAA examiner before they get to fly again. A $10,000 fine is normal. A suspension or revocation of the pilot's license is possible. For a second violation, likely.

Current enforcement policy, from AOPA: [1]

[1] https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2014/december/p...

I mean, hopefully the bird-proofing on those planes is enough to keep a drone from stopping the engine. Otherwise we need to outlaw birds.

By your logic, absolutely any sort of traffic violation should be good for at least 5 years in prison. You're being ridiculous.

You sound very passionate. "A few decades should do" to what? Make an example out of them? For restorative justice? To get back at them? To keep society safe from them?

From what I've seen the distance is measured in regular miles [1,2]. Also, I'm not sure what him hitting the power line has anything to do with contacting the airports. Even if he had contacted them, they can only tell him no if they think he would "endanger the safety of the airspace" [3]. So if he had called, he could have just said he'd be flying at a nearby park. Additionally, most of the airports I call are totally clueless (ex: someone told me I couldn't fly a drone within 35 miles of DC - completely not true), and the FAA doesn't even provide a way to contact them. I had to download 3rd party apps to find this information. This guy messed up, but the FAA has created a bunch of complex rules that are hard to follow and provide little benefit.

[1] https://www.faa.gov/uas/where_to_fly/b4ufly/media/UAS_B4UFLY... [2] https://www.faa.gov/uas/where_to_fly/airspace_restrictions/ [3] https://www.faa.gov/uas/faqs/

Nanometers?

nautical miles

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