Investigators looking into drone flights near fire sites
The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday said it was investigating a second incident involving a drone illegally flying into North Bay fire areas, a day after police cited a drone operator for causing firefighters to briefly stop flying in and out of the Petaluma airport.
The FAA also added a new area with temporary flight restrictions around Napa, extending previous no-fly zones instituted last week around Santa Rosa and Sonoma.
FAA spokesman Ian Gregory said the second, previously unreported incident took place in Santa Rosa early last week. The clashes with drones come as the growing popularity of the consumer-flown devices has increased the number of drone sightings by aircraft pilots in the Bay Area.
Gregory said he couldn’t comment on open investigations, but he noted the FAA could fine a drone pilot who recklessly interferes with firefighting or other emergency response operations up to $20,000 per violation. A Cal Fire spokesman said he had not heard of the more recent incident.
However, drones are also helping with recovery efforts. Two PG&E drone teams began flying Sunday in Napa and Sonoma counties to help the utility determine the damage to its distribution system.
On Sunday, Petaluma police cited Nestor Rodriguez, 24, for flying his drone over a Cal Fire helicopter that was on the ground at Petaluma Municipal Airport about 2:30 p.m.. The airport is a staging area for firefighting helicopters, said Cal Fire Deputy Chief Scott McLean.
Although the helicopter was inactive, the drone’s presence caused Cal Fire to stop takeoffs and landings to avoid the possibility of a collision. Operations were halted for about 10 minutes at a time when any delay getting fire retardant to raging fire lines “can be detrimental,” McLean said.
FAA regulations generally prohibit unauthorized flights of a drone within at least five miles of an airport. In addition, the FAA issued an order for a part of Sonoma County, including the airport, creating a onemonth restricted flight zone banning aircraft flying from the ground up to 7,000 feet.
Fire crews were sent to a field east of the airport and found Rodriguez, said Petaluma police Lieutenant Ron Klein.
Rodriguez, who told officers that he “did not realize it was illegal,” was cited for impeding emergency personnel, Klein said. Police confiscated the drone.
PG&E, meanwhile, set up base camps for drone inspection flights in Napa and Sonoma counties, after gaining clearance to fly from Cal Fire and the FAA, spokesman Jason King said.
The utility has used drones to survey gas and electric lines, but this was the first time PG&E has used the craft in an active wildfire situation, King said.
There’s been no shortage of video shot from drones and
posted online, including dramatic video shot by Thomas Rennie, who was reportedly checking on the condition of a relative’s house, that showed the destruction of the Coffey Park neighborhood in Santa Rosa.
Photographers from The Chronicle have been using drones to take aerial photos of the devastation, in adherence with flight regulations.
And a memorable video shot by professional drone operator Douglas Thron, before the FAA issued a no-fly zone for the area, showed a U.S. Postal Service truck continuing to deliver mail to homes that no longer exist.
People who saw that video, which was widely reported by media outlets, or similar drone footage posted online might be tempted out to “go up and make a similar video,” said Pablo Estrada, vice president of marketing at Dedrone, a San Francisco company that sells technology to track drones.
“There’s often an element of curiosity that is present,” Estrada said. While that’s not necessarily malicious, drone operators need to educate themselves about flying in dangerous conditions or when it might interfere with emergency workers, Estrada said.
In cases of natural disasters such as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, insurance companies are increasingly using drones to survey damage, said Joshua Ziering, founder of Kittyhawk, a San Francisco startup that helps companies manage drone flight patterns and data.
He also said there are autonomous drones being used for firefighting in countries like Australia. But Kittyhawk is advising its clients not to fly in fire zones, where “aerial firefighting efforts are a precise and delicate operation that are just simply incompatible with drones,” he said.
And the actions of “cowboy, rogue” operators who fly dangerously threaten the rights of thousands of other responsible operators around the world, he said.
“All it takes is one person who’s going to fly over a helicopter and that ruins it for everybody,” Ziering said.
The FAA had been requiring operators of drones weighing above 0.55 pounds to pay a $5 fee and register online, but the requirement was overturned in a May court decision and the agency is refunding the registration fees.