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For Video of Helicopter Shooting Fireworks at Lamborghini, YouTube Influencer Faces 10 Years in Prison (msn.com) 131

An anonymous reader shared this report from the Washington Post: A YouTuber who posted a Fourth of July video in which passengers on a low-flying helicopter shot fireworks at a speeding Lamborghini is facing a federal charge tied to the stunt.

Suk Min Choi, 24, who runs a YouTube channel under the name Alex Choi, was charged Thursday with causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, the Justice Department announced. He arranged to have the helicopter fly over the El Mirage Dry Lakebed near Los Angeles in June 2023 for a video titled "Destroying a Lamborghini With Fireworks," according to a complaint filed in the Central District Court of California. The video, released on July 4, shows scenes akin to an action film as Choi laughs while driving the Lamborghini and helicopter-launched fireworks ricochet off the car, enveloping it in sparks...

Choi faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the Justice Department.

More details from NBC Los Angeles: Federal authorities said radar data from the day of the video shoot showed that the helicopter left an airport in Pacoima, California, around 1:53 p.m. and turned toward El Mirage Lake, a dry lake in California, where the video was filmed. The helicopter's transponder was then turned off, according to the affidavit. The helicopter reappeared on the radar and flew back to the airport just before 9 p.m., the document says.

The pilot initially told an FAA inspector that he did not know anything about the El Mirage video, according to the affidavit. In a follow-up call, he told inspectors that he did not want Choi to know he was speaking with them and said "Choi was doing unsafe activities involving cars and aircraft." In January, the FAA issued an emergency order revoking the pilot's private pilot certification, the affidavit says.

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For Video of Helicopter Shooting Fireworks at Lamborghini, YouTube Influencer Faces 10 Years in Prison

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    That is all.

  • by MpVpRb ( 1423381 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @10:58AM (#64533303)

    When Mythbusters used explosives, they followed the rules, got inspections and permits along with all the safety support
    These clowns acted irresponsibly

    • Agreed, although if they were consumer fireworks that might change things. Incindary is usually flame thrower or some other device with the intention of creating a fire. Explosive device, designed to explode on target. Fireworks, even though they employ the same technologies, primary purpose is to be a brightly lit colorful device.

      Still stupid though, just asking for all the wrong attention with how they went about it.

  • by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @11:09AM (#64533339)

    If you have your pilot's license, you've already been told about the regulations multiple times.

    It's not like this clown had no warning, and the regulations didn't get written for no reason (they're rarely proactively created) - at some point somebody got hurt and that has costs associated with it that the rest of us aren't willing to tolerate.

    Don't like it? Find some place that cares less about these things and fill your boots.

    • I sincerely doubt that "causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft" is prohibited because someone got hurt by shooting fireworks from an aircraft. It seems like a rule to enable convicting terrorists even if their "explosive or incendiary device" fails. It is however very clear that the rule covers fireworks shot from an aircraft too, even if everybody in the vicinity is a consenting adult. Should've applied for a permit.

      • Should've applied for a permit.

        No permit would have been forthcoming, so this is just a way of saying he shouldn't have done it at all.

        • Worse stuff has been permitted in the interest of entertainment. It's not free and you can't do it haphazardly like these folks though.

          • If you know the right people you can get it done. If you're outside those networks, you just get denied.

      • sincerely doubt that "causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft" is prohibited because someone got hurt by shooting fireworks from an aircraft

        Dude launching fireworks and blowing yourself up was probably like the first thing anyone did after consumer helicopters hit the market.

        • First was probably photography - which is restricted too in Canada at least, probably in the name of keeping you focused on flying. I've seen illegally produced publications where nobody got charged, though.

          After that comes buzzing buildings or people, and after that flying through clouds without radar and instruments to do so safely.

          As my instructor said, "I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but you're not supposed to".

      • You may sincerely doubt that anyone has died in an airborne pyrotechnics incident, but I'm sincerely convinced, all on my own.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Turing off the transponder all day and then lying about everything certainly didn't help his case.

      • Turing off the transponder all day and then lying about everything certainly didn't help his case.

        And certainly not an obvious lie:

        The pilot initially told an FAA inspector that he did not know anything about the El Mirage video, according to the affidavit.

        Didn't know *anything*? I mean, he was there and (I imagine) there are records. Unless he's a deaf and blind helicopter pilot ... or somehow didn't notice the fireworks shooting out of the vehicle he was piloting.

  • and earn him some more clikz, because that's what he so desperately wants...

  • by Bruce66423 ( 1678196 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @11:31AM (#64533389)

    It appears that the pilot who allowed him to put the fireworks on the helicopter is to blame. Doesn't Hollywood like competition? Or is this the FAA looking to justify their existence?

    • They go after Choi the same way they'd go after you if you ordered a murderer to whack someone.

      • by Bruce66423 ( 1678196 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @12:11PM (#64533527)

        If he's an averagely knowledgeable person he's far more likely to assume that there wasn't a problem and merely paid the pilot to do something he believed to be legal. It should have been the PILOT that stopped this happening, surely?

        • If he's an averagely knowledgeable person he's far more likely to assume that there wasn't a problem and merely paid the pilot to do something he believed to be legal.

          Ignorance is not a defence: "Ignorantia juris non excusat". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

          That does not seem to me the kind of situations where one would invoke ignorance. It's not a tourist who got lost and ended up on a forbidden land without knowledge. What Choi does is to run a production house (a youtube channel but still, he has a team, he hires people, he films movies, and he earns money from views; that's what movie production businesses do). When you start a business that's not a simple lemonade

          • Ignorance is not a defence: "Ignorantia juris non excusat". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ [wikipedia.org]... [wikipedia.org]

            Unless you're a cop of course. Then you're held to lower standards and ignorance of the law absolutely *is* an excuse for detaining someone, searching them, then using what you find to lock them up. (Heien v North Carolina)

    • Or is this the FAA looking to justify their existence?

      I know conservatives love stripping regulatory bodies of power but the FAA not having the resources and allowing Boeing to self certify is what lead to parts falling off airplanes. This article predicted safety would suffer. https://nffe.org/nffe_news/tru... [nffe.org]

      Flying is safe because of FAA.

    • I have no doubt that the pilot will also face cconsequences.

    • Justify their existence? Investigating people knowingly breaking the law to do things that could well cause harm to other aircraft or people on the ground is kind of the reason for their existence.
  • Google "US sentencing guidelines" and look how many things have to line up to get a maximum sentence. Actual sentences are almost always way less than the headline number.

    On top of that the overwhelming majority of Federal cases end in plea bargains.

    • The maximum is 20. If he gets 10 he'll already meet your criteria of "way less". Incidentally if the summary is to be believed a lot of actions were performed that showed that this is not some incidental breaking of a law. It shows a pattern of wilful law breaking. The people involved were certified in ways that meant they couldn't have not known about the regulation. And if the prosecutor is even partially competent he'd go through the guys history showing that he has recklessly endangered other people cou

  • that he didn't ask for a permit to do this is just incredibly stupid
    that he gets the equivalent of terrorist treatment for it is just unfair and scary
    that he even has millions of subscribers wanting to watch fucking stupid crap like this is just ... sad
    global warming can't happen fast enough

  • by tiqui ( 1024021 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @02:52PM (#64533843)

    [1] Don't play with fireworks in California (where they are ILLEGAL) on video, which you then upload to a place where everybody on the planet (including law enforcement) can see it.

    [2] Don't carry hazardous stuff on an aircraft, fire anything at an aircraft, or fire anything from an aircraft without knowing the regulations that apply and adhering to them. Oh, and don't video yourself doing it and then upload it to a place where anybody (including the FAA) can see it.

    [3] If you have a pilot's license, don't turn off your transponder during one portion of your flights where you are doing illegal stuff - you'll stick out like a sore thumb. It's no longer legal to operate an aircraft in most US airspace without an active ADSB-out transponder. By flying most of you activity with it on, then a bit of activity with it off, then putting it back on again, you have documented the time and place of your illegal actions AND your knowledge of wrongdoing.

    [4] If you have a pilot's license and the FAA contacts you to look into some of your actions, DO NOT LIE TO THEM. They WILL find out and you WILL lose your license. If you lie to them, you are opening a massive can of legal whoopass - you can then be charged with all sorts of crimes like interfering in a government investigation (the sorts of overlapping and vague laws with huge penalties that congress created to go after organized crime etc.)

    So-called "social media" is a monster; it enables the dumbest people on the planet to make money doing stupid and often dangerous crap - and it's like they live in some alternate universe. These idiots think that all the normal rules, laws, regulations etc of society do not apply to THEM. If it'll get clicks, they're up for it no matter the legality or the risks.

  • So many people getting so butt-hurt about someone letting off some fireworks. Just to put things in perspective, normally when fireworks are let off there are hundreds or thousands of people standing nearby.

    Meanwhile politicians and MSM are supporting genocide in Palestine and the silence is deafening. Children being blown to bits and starved to death, that's what pisses me off.

    • by znrt ( 2424692 )

      silence might be deafening in the us (where not only politicians and mass media but even universities and think tanks are totally obedient to the israeli lobby), in the uk (which is the us' lapdog and will do as told), in germany (where they are still traumatized by guilt for attempting genocide themselves and anything jew is just taboo and sacrosanct), maybe australia (?) and ... where else? afaik media in the rest of the world is pretty open about the atrocity that israel is committing in palestine, and w

    • Seriously, how the fuck do you connect this with Palestine? You know there are millions of other crimes happening? Rape, murder, starvations what the hell does the FAA have anything to do with that? Do you want all of the employees of the FAA to magically fly to protect Palestine? Hell how about all of law enforcement? Oh I know, you want us to go in with the military to "fix the problem". Boy howdy, you know how well the US has been doing in the last 50 years of world building.

      I am sick and tired
  • His family is wealthy, he'll be ok.

    Personally, I find that a bit draconian. It was in a desert after all.

    Unlike other YouTubers, his videos are somewhat high quality and he doesn't generate clicks by pissing off other people.

  • ... a felon that sells state secrets to your enemies has a real chance to be elected by these very same lawful peoples, and he still walks free to this very day!

    Your selective approach to justice is going to be the joke that destroys you. Your reputation is already gone.....

  • by tinkerton ( 199273 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @04:17PM (#64534033)

    The video doesn't load. Has it been slashdotted you think?
    Oh wait..

  • by tiananmen tank man ( 979067 ) on Saturday June 08, 2024 @05:13PM (#64534131)

    Ever since YouTube has gotten the "short" videos,I've seen a increase of click bait videos. It seems it is very profitable to be a " influencer" now.

Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries, knows nothing about grapes. -- Philippus Paracelsus

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