Drone Operator Who Grounded LA Firefighting Plane Pleads Guilty

(Bloomberg) -- A Los Angeles-area man has agreed to plead guilty to recklessly flying a drone that crashed into a firefighting aircraft battling the Palisades wildfire as it burned out of control, federal prosecutors said on Friday.

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The collision damaged the wing of a Super Scooper, a specialized aircraft capable of carrying large amounts of ocean water to douse active fires. The damage forced the plane out of service for days, impacting efforts to the contain the wind-whipped blaze as it was quickly spreading.

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Peter Tripp Akemann, 56, of Culver City admitted to launching the drone from a Santa Monica parking structure on Jan. 9 and flying it more than 1.5 miles toward the wildfire into restricted airspace.

He then lost sight of the drone, which struck a wing of the Super Scooper, leaving a hole about three by six inches. The plane was grounded for repairs after maintenance crews discovered the damage.

“All evidence indicates he just wanted to see the fire,” said Thom Mrozek, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles, at a hearing on Friday.

Akemann will plead guilty to unsafe drone operation, a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in prison. As part of a plea deal, he will pay roughly $65,000 in restitution to the province of Quebec, which supplied the Super Scooper, and an aircraft repair company. He will also complete 150 hours of community service in the next year in wildfire relief efforts.

“The message here is deterrence. If you do this, we are going to track you down and prosecute,” Joe McNally, acting US attorney for the Central District of California, said at the hearing.

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The Palisades fire, which is now 98% contained, has destroyed almost 7,000 structures, mostly homes, and resulted in at least 12 deaths and four injuries.

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