Tag Archives: arrest

Unannounced appearance of mapping drone delays 10 flights at Beijing airport – 4 drone operators detained by police

On December 29, 2013, the flight of an UAV drone was detected over the International Airport of Beijing at 11:00 AM. The drone, an RC model airplane equipped with video camera, was flying at 100 Km/h.

An RC model plane. For illustration purposes only. Kindly shared on Flickr Creative Commons by www.expeditionarguk.com
An RC model plane with camera. Kindly shared on Flickr Creative Commons by www.expeditionarguk.com – For illustration purposes only

An helicopter was sent to intercept the UAV, which tuned out to be a drone owned by a local company that was performing mapping operations of the airport. Although the operation was legal, the flight of the UAV was done without the proper authorizations and without warning the airport operators. Hence the alarm when the drone was spotted flying over the airport.

The departure of 10 civilian flights was delayed because of this accident.

The 4 man operating the drone are detained by the local police and have been charged with “endangering public security” and “seriously interrupting flight order”.

Source: Suasnews

Multirotor used to smuggle tobacco inside prison – Drone technology opens new routes for contraband

Staff member from the Calhoun State prison in Georgia spotted a suspicious “helicopter” flying over the prison.

Calhoun State prison
Calhoun State prison

Rather than an helicopter, it looks like something visitors of this site are very familiar with: a DJI F500 hexacopter with a NAZA flight board, controlled by a Spectrum DX radio:

DJI hexacopter used for contraband in an attempt top smuggle tobbacco inside a Georgia prison
DJI hexacopter used for contraband in an attempt top smuggle tobbacco inside a Georgia prison – source

This unusual visit prompted a search on the premises surroundings, and after an hour Deputies noticed a suspicious Dodge car with 4 people onboard, two males and two females, and the multirotor.

“Everybody had several cell phones with different contacts. People try different things but the helicopter was something new. It is a surprise I’ve never seen a helicopter. They were in the woods flying it they had binoculars evidently so they could watch it,” Hilton said.

Multirotor tobacco smugglers - source
Multirotor tobacco smugglers – source

Read the full story at walb.com

This had to happen sooner or later. Quadcopters and multirotors are an obvious easy way to bypass any kind of wall, perimeter, country border et-cetera, and maybe deliver illegal items such as drugs for example.

After all, with multirotor deliveries for books and pizza to start soon, the use of this technology for both law enforcement (12) and all sorts of illegal purposes is just a matter of time.

Pilot of the phantom quadcopter that crashed in Manhattan arrested

We recently reported about the story in which a phantom quadcopter was flown over manhattan, went out of control and landed at the feets of a worried businessman, who handled the little personal drone, with camera and sd card, to the police and ABC News. This is the original story from ABC news:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J71QG1WqWw

These is an important update on this story as 34 years old Brooklin musician David Zablidowsky was arrested for reckless endangerment, a class A misdemeanor, for “flying a remote control helicopter off a balcony, losing control, causing it to crash to the ground from an unreasonable height creating a substantial risk of serious physical injury.”

David Zablidowsky self portrait from the footage of the camera on his phantom quadcopter
David Zablidowsky self portrait from the footage of the camera on his phantom quadcopter

This puts flying a personal drone over a populated area in a different perspective for people with this hobby. At the time, police said that “no laws were broken” and it looked like they were not going to pursue the investigations further. Eventually, somebody understood that the phenomena of personal rc drones will probably grow exponentially in the next years and something had to be done to “send the right message”.

You can read the story and watch a video here.

Here’s the original footage from the phantom: