Canadian 'Super Scooper' Plane Grounded After Hitting Civilian Drone Over LA Wildfires

Los Angeles authorities have vowed to prosecute illegal drone operators after a civilian drone collided with a Canadian CL-415 firefighting plane combating the Palisades Fire, causing damage that grounded the aircraft and temporarily halted all aerial firefighting operations. CNN reports: The specifically designed CL-415 firefighting planes are used to scoop up more than 1,500 gallons of ocean water to drop on active fires. The plane in question, Quebec 1, "sustained wing damage and remains grounded and out of service," Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Erik Scott said, adding that there were no reported injuries. The damaged plane will be prioritized for repair and should be back up flying by Monday, L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said Friday. The collision caused the temporary grounding of all aircraft responding to the Palisades Fire, The War Zone reported, citing Cal Fire. It was one of the two such planes deployed to the site, The War Zone said. "You will be arrested, you will be prosecuted, and you will be punished to the full extent of the law," said Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman in a statement.

Marrone added that, "Our federal partners behind the scenes are going to be implementing procedures to be able to follow drones in our two large fire areas, and they will be able to identify who the operator of that drone is. "The most important thing to know is that if you fly a drone at one of these brush fires, all aerial operations will be shut down, and we certainly don't want to have that happen."

The FAA underscored late Thursday that it "has not authorized anyone unaffiliated with the Los Angeles firefighting operations to fly drones" in restricted airspace put in place over the wildfires. "The FAA treats these violations seriously and immediately considers swift enforcement action for these offenses," the agency said.

Alright, which one of you was it?

[Narcocide]

Come on, I know you're here.

CL-415

[lazarus]

Weird that the article doesn't actually go into any details about how cool these planes are. Here [youtube.com] is a video of how they work for those who want to geek out.

Re:

[rossdee]

Obviously they need to make more of them. Wildfires are going to be an increasing problem in the next decade.

Re:

[Bruinwar]

That was worth watching.

Thanks!

Asshat!

[Tablizer]

Luck the Focker up and burn the key!

Re:

[alvinrod]

The city is going to need extensive rebuilding efforts after the fires are contained and I can think of no better punishment than making this person spend a lot of hours aiding with that effort. California already uses prison inmates to assist with firefighting efforts, so making this one aid in the cleanup would fit with that and be of more use as much as they may deserve to rot in a cell.

Good.

[MachineShedFred]

Any lookie-loos that get in the way of actual firefighting in order to get clicks on social media or make a few bucks licensing footage to cable news deserve to have their shit confiscated, be legally banned from flying ANYTHING in US airspace, probably some hefty fines, and maybe even some jail time.

Firefighting resources are now unavailable while people's houses burn because of some selfish dipshit and their drone not following the law. Fuck that guy, and anyone else who's personal dipshittery is causing

Big Luigi energy

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the guy with the drone wanted Mel Gibson's house to burn down.
Did you ever consider that?

Re: Big Luigi energy

[SuperDre]

Lucky for us, as Mel Gibson is one hell of an actor and director, and he is entitled to his own private believes.

Wildfires

[backslashdot]

This is only on the news because rich people were affected. Millions of acres burned and people lost their homes around 2019 and nobody gave a shit. Now we have 50,000 acres on fire and the whole Republican Party is angry as hell. I'm not saying the anger is unjustified but where was it when the poor are affected and many lives were lost? Where was it when Flint Michigan had dirty water? Remember for Flint the narrative was people (mostly black) shouldn't have chosen to live there The party of individual re

Re:Wildfires

[taustin]

Republicans are angry as hell? How many Republicans do you believe live in Malibu? It's about as lefty as it gets up there.

Everybody is worked up because it's rich celebrities being affected, and the "new" media is shilling it as hard as they can because a) it sells advertising, b) some of the better known newsies have lose their homes, too, c) it sells advertising, and, last but not least, it sells advertising.

Aside from your mentally deficient hate on the right, and inability to suppress it long enough to make a single post, no matter how stupid you sound doing it, I agree.

Re:

[DamnOregonian]

It's about 60/30 there, in favor of Democrats.
30% is still a whole lot of Republicans, and they have been quite vocal about how this is all the local government's fault.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Republicans? That's celebrities and Paris Hilton territory. That is as "left" coastal elite as you can get next to the Hamptons on the other side of the continent.

Re:

[Sique]

Look up the latest election results before spouting bullshit.

Re:

[Fly Swatter]

Stop with the political bullshit, this is a general failing of modern government in general. Stop standing up and pointing useless broken fingers, if you can't help to get shit done just sit down. Unfortunately most of us can only sit in these situations and watch the two sides put more effort into blaming each other than fixing the problem.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Angry ? The republicans are angry about these fires ? Really ? You believe that ?

There are happy as fuck, and as with everything are trying to score some gutter political points by spreading bullshit.
They are like Trump, they don't give a shit about anything but themselves. And it seems like it's working, Trump got elected.

Moderators

[backslashdot]

Jesus who are the idiots modding this -1 off-topic when it got like 7 replies?

Re: Wildfires

[SuperDre]

2019 it was also all over the news, I guess people like you are very short on memory.

wel will see

[luther349]

if its some random unresgisterd drone the faa isnt gonna have anything,

Is it illegal?

[hdyoung]

Cause if its not illegal, there wont be any consequences. This is America, where people are generally free to be booger-eating morons.

Re:

[Striek]

Yes, it is illegal. Very. Canadian pilot (so can't quote the relevant FAA regs) here but our laws are pretty similar. Flying drones in active firefighting zones can easily land you in jail, for this exact reason.

Re:

[Ed Tice]

Yes it's illegal. The FAA restricted the airspace for exactly this reason. Unfortunately, flying a drone doesn't require any training or license so it's likely that whoever did this was oblivious not malicious.

Look, in the sky, it's a shadow fleet

[smap77]

Who needs a shadow fleet snagging undersea fiber when you can pay a patsy $20/hr to fly their drone and stop/hinder/delay a firefighting operation that's trying to prevent a $100M/hr property loss?

Homeless problem.. Too much time and $$$??

[ndsurvivor]

We have a homeless problem on our hands. Some people are flying drones, killing time, doing wasteful things. We do have a serious homeless problem on our hands now more than ever since the Great Depression... especially now with peoples homes burning down. Instead of spending a bunch of money on drones, and wasting a bunch of time flying them where they are not wanted, why not volunteer at a soup kitchen? Maybe spend some money on affordable housing for the poor?