Man Arrested After Drone Hits Empire State Building

Megalith

Megalith

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I’m getting the impression that we're going to start seeing statutes specifically for drone-related incidents.

The police said that Mr. Riddle was flying his drone in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday when it crashed into the building’s 40th floor. The device fell from the sky after striking the building, landing on a ledge four floors down. Mr. Riddle then entered the building to ask security guards for help. The guards agreed to help, but called the police instead. The police said they did not know if the drone was ever retrieved from the ledge.
 
This is becoming a problem because of asshats who are too naïve or stupid to understand the safety risks that irresponsible drone piloting involves. At 40 stories, can you imagine the possible outcomes if the drone had instead fallen down to the pavement instead of onto a ledge? How does one also keep it from getting tangled up in various wires(yes I know NYC utilities run underground), or hitting structures, or even being used to invade other people's privacy? Drone operators are quickly becoming the new glassholes, and I am so glad that glassholes were fad driven and no longer cool.
 
So lets see how this leads. A person crashes a drone, fesses up to it and gets arrested, doesn't get his drone back. A different person crashes a drone, and just leaves it there, doesn't get his drone back.

This isn't going to encourage compliance with the FAA drone regulations at all since doing so only increases the operator's liability from losing an expensive toy to whatever the DA feels makes an adequate example.

It needs to be a model similar to vehicle operation. Fly it over private property, that's cool, it's between you and the property owner to get permission / settle damages. Fly it in public space, require some kind of insurance to operate dense/heavy drones above a certain altitude (since accidents happen, they may be blown into private property, etc), which are potentially dangerous falling objects, and require operator licensing.

While ultralights which have an adequate drag to mass ratio that they're literal styrofoam airplanes and really are no more dangerous than flying trash picked up by wind gusts should be exempted, and not based on a ridiculous 7 ounce threshold, a 7 oz lump of lead and steel is far more dangerous than a 10 oz frisbee. Just require manufacturers to publish these metrics so the laws can address the real problems.
 
every item has a terminal velocity, the maximum speed it will fall through air. I suspect it is not very high for a drone. Even coins will only do some 60mph. People drop them off tall buildings all the time to see if they will kill people below.
 
A short definition of what the Darwin Award is.
Note: taking out bystanders as well automatically disqualifies you, you're just another stupid asshole.

Darwin Award

An "award" given to people who contribute the most to the evolution of humanity by removing their genes from the gene pool in a spectacularly stupid manner
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One of my all time favorites.

Year 2000 Recipient

Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet, didn’t put enough postage on a letter bomb, and it came back marked “return to sender.” He opened the package and was blown away.
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jiminator said:
every item has a terminal velocity, the maximum speed it will fall through air. I suspect it is not very high for a drone. Even coins will only do some 60mph. People drop them off tall buildings all the time to see if they will kill people below.
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That's why we can't rely on the weight for the determination. Dense drones will have a high terminal velocity, these are often the more expensive models with a large payload carrying high quality cameras and are more stable amidst air currents, but hit like a truck. Lower density drones have a larger surface area and are more affected by air currents but won't hit any harder than random debris carried by the wind, whether it's a styrofiam drone or a trash can lid in a strong gust is still really more of an act of nature if it occurred suddenly. Imagine that outcry today if hot air balloons were just invented and in their infancy. Egads! Hundreds of kilos of stuff that can fall from the sky with no warning and they can't even control the direction of flight! Arrest anyone that lands for reckless endangerment.
 
amdgamer said:
This is becoming a problem because of asshats who are too naïve or stupid to understand the safety risks that irresponsible drone piloting involves. At 40 stories, can you imagine the possible outcomes if the drone had instead fallen down to the pavement instead of onto a ledge? How does one also keep it from getting tangled up in various wires(yes I know NYC utilities run underground), or hitting structures, or even being used to invade other people's privacy? Drone operators are quickly becoming the new glassholes, and I am so glad that glassholes were fad driven and no longer cool.
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Look at the crane accident. Could easily see a drone causing shit like that to happen. Person tries to fly up to see what a construction crew is doing, operator tries to avoid flying drone and as a result CRASH.
 
Saw a video on YT just a few days ago of a guy flying a drone in a busy downtown area and immediately thought to myself that can't be legal, maybe it was him.
 
Exavior said:
Look at the crane accident. Could easily see a drone causing shit like that to happen. Person tries to fly up to see what a construction crew is doing, operator tries to avoid flying drone and as a result CRASH.
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The Youtubes are full of those videos of drones annoying the hell out of people whether it is firefighters fighting a fire, or a home owner who just wants privacy. Selfishly stupid people will be the reason for the extinction of the human race one day. I was so happy when glassholes went away, but it turns out many glassholes found their new jollies operating drones.
 
Miikun said:
That's why we can't rely on the weight for the determination. Dense drones will have a high terminal velocity....
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And now you are making stuff up about things you don't know about. Helicopters can have the engine go out and fall and the pilot survive because the rotor continues to turn, generating lift to counter some of the drop. The same will apply here x4
 
jiminator said:
And now you are making stuff up about things you don't know about. Helicopters can have the engine go out and fall and the pilot survive because the rotor continues to turn, generating lift to counter some of the drop. The same will apply here x4
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I'm referring to the FAA registration requirement for drones above a specific weight to be registered like a potentially lethal weapon. I'm quite aware that you can design a drone to have reduced terminal velocity through other means.
 
jiminator said:
And now you are making stuff up about things you don't know about. Helicopters can have the engine go out and fall and the pilot survive because the rotor continues to turn, generating lift to counter some of the drop. The same will apply here x4
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Not necessarily. Having dropped a Phantom 3 drone out of the sky, I can tell you, it drops like a brick. I had a gasser helicopter that weighed twice as much as the phoantom 3 that could be autorotation landed if it ran out of gas.
The props on the phantom 3 are small and very fast turning. They do not create adequate drag in a power loss situation to slow it much at all. A 30' drop caused a great deal of damage to the drone. A person would have been hurt pretty badly if I was the sort of dick that flew it over people and it had landed on one. Other lightweight drones might be different of course.
 
Gorankar said:
A 30' drop caused a great deal of damage to the drone. A person would have been hurt pretty badly if I was the sort of dick that flew it over people and it had landed on one.
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I show they weigh 2.8 lbs. @ 30' that is a 1 second drop for a 29 mph impact. Which is not "nothing" but a baseball would be much more devastating.
 
Exavior said:
Look at the crane accident. Could easily see a drone causing shit like that to happen. Person tries to fly up to see what a construction crew is doing, operator tries to avoid flying drone and as a result CRASH.
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pretty sure most drones would just bounce off that crane... plus I doubt the operator would even see the drone, let alone feel hitting it
 
Shoulda got another "drone", fabricate a hook onto the bottom and go fish out his downed "drone".
 
Miikun said:
So lets see how this leads. A person crashes a drone, fesses up to it and gets arrested, doesn't get his drone back. A different person crashes a drone, and just leaves it there, doesn't get his drone back.

This isn't going to encourage compliance with the FAA drone regulations at all since doing so only increases the operator's liability from losing an expensive toy to whatever the DA feels makes an adequate example.
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What are the penalties for flying a drone without having it registered? Maybe that makes it the deciding factor.

And while he didn't get his drone back immediately, I'm fairly certain he'll get his drone back eventually.
 
If the police retrieved it and there's peeping tom footage on it, the drone operator is going to be arrested ... I would think.
 
jiminator said:
And now you are making stuff up about things you don't know about. Helicopters can have the engine go out and fall and the pilot survive because the rotor continues to turn, generating lift to counter some of the drop. The same will apply here x4
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Drones typically don't have the necessary rotor inertia to do an autorotation, and it would require user inputs that would be pretty hard if not impossible to get right on a falling drone even if one did. The same does not apply here at all, but I'd rather have a foam and plastic drone fall on me than a solid object of any mass (well, besides zero) from that height.
 
aeliusg said:
Drones typically don't have the necessary rotor inertia to do an autorotation, and it would require user inputs that would be pretty hard if not impossible to get right on a falling drone even if one did. The same does not apply here at all, but I'd rather have a foam and plastic drone fall on me than a solid object of any mass (well, besides zero) from that height.
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Not to mention with a heli their rotors are absolutely huge compared to the size of the aircraft, with a drone, they're quite tiny.
 
Miikun said:
So lets see how this leads. A person crashes a drone, fesses up to it and gets arrested, doesn't get his drone back. A different person crashes a drone, and just leaves it there, doesn't get his drone back.

This isn't going to encourage compliance with the FAA drone regulations at all since doing so only increases the operator's liability from losing an expensive toy to whatever the DA feels makes an adequate example.

It needs to be a model similar to vehicle operation. Fly it over private property, that's cool, it's between you and the property owner to get permission / settle damages. Fly it in public space, require some kind of insurance to operate dense/heavy drones above a certain altitude (since accidents happen, they may be blown into private property, etc), which are potentially dangerous falling objects, and require operator licensing.

While ultralights which have an adequate drag to mass ratio that they're literal styrofoam airplanes and really are no more dangerous than flying trash picked up by wind gusts should be exempted, and not based on a ridiculous 7 ounce threshold, a 7 oz lump of lead and steel is far more dangerous than a 10 oz frisbee. Just require manufacturers to publish these metrics so the laws can address the real problems.
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But you don't own the air above your property, that airspace only extends to "what is reasonably used" and that really isn't very high above most privately owned dwellings.

So there is nothing legally wrong ass it stands today with someone flying their drone around town, up over housing areas and backyards, etc. Yes there are new city ordinances in the works or even in place, regulations about proximity to air traffic control zones, etc.

Maybe the FAA needs legislation that requires all drones to have on-board navigation capabilities allowing them to identify and avoid airspace that is designated as "Non-UAS Accessible", and then the FAA can maintain this database and cities, counties, etc, can all upload these legally restricted areas as their laws allow.

Do this and your drone will refuse to make a criminal of even the most clueless operator :D
 
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