Lost drones a police matter

Re When the drone doesn’t come home, Sept. 26 Wayward drones, which become “lost” only because their careless owners drive them beyond the range of their wireless controllers, should not be returned directly to their owners.

These airborne missiles will continue to fly until their power source is exhausted and will then simply fall out of the sky like a rock. This might be onto someone’s head or a picnic table, or onto a highway causing drivers to swerve suddenly to avoid them, becoming simply another piece of human-generated litter on the landscape. Thus they should be turned over to the police so the owners can be charged with “endangering the public” or whatever suitable offence.

These amateurs threaten not only the unsuspecting public with the fallout of their ineptitude but also scrupulous pilots that use unmanned aerial vehicles in their professions.

They raise the spectre of heavy-handed regulations by governments in knee-jerk reactions to a couple of incidences that could limit the practical applications of these potentially valuable devices. Brian Wannamaker, Caledon East, Ont.