North Highlands man charged for flying drone over NFL games

A North Highlands man was charged Tuesday by a federal court in San Jose for violating national airspace when he flew a drone and dropped flyers over two NFL games in 2017.

The complaint charges Tracy Michael Mapes, 56, with violations of national defense airspace, according to a news release from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Mapes was arrested and cited in 2017 in Santa Clara after dropping leaflets over Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, where the San Francisco 49ers play their home games, and the Oakland Coliseum, home of the Oakland Raiders, according to previous reporting by The Sacramento Bee. Games were being played in both stadiums at the time the leaflets were dropped, and tens of thousands of people were present.

The Federal Aviation Administration designates the airspace above and within a three-mile radius of NFL stadiums during games as important to national security, and its use is restricted, according to the court. Mapes, who had was registered with the FAA in February 2016 to operate unmanned aircraft systems, understood the guidelines imposed by regulators on appropriate drone operation, according to the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, when Alameda County sheriff’s deputies found the man controlling the drone a half-mile from the stadium and asked if he had permission to fly over the event, Mapes responded, “Probably not.” Prosecutors said that Mapes also acknowledged that he had come from the 49ers game, and that he “believed his actions of flying a UAS over the stadiums and distributing his message outweighed any repercussions.”

Mapes has, in the past, stated publicly he was responsible for the acts. In 2017, he told KGO-TV, the ABC affiliate in San Francisco, that he dropped the leaflets by drone to redress perceived violations of the Constitution by the media and others. The dropped flyers addressed free speech and called TV news stations corrupt. — Hannah Darden, The Sacramento Bee