There are definite differences between being ignorant of drone rules, occasionally flirting with the limits of restrictions, and being an utter pillock in violating them. A California pilot has just pleaded guilty to what amounts to the latter, and then some.
On Thursday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said a Laguna Beach resident had entered a guilty plea to three federal criminal charges in violating drone rules – each count involving intentional flight near piloted aircraft.
As a measure of what a complete tool the pilot was behind the controls, the third outrage occurred when his UAV was flown “directly at (a) Coast Guard helicopter, coming to within 200 feet of it.”
Astonishingly, given the flagrant, slam-dunk, this-way-to-your-cell details of each offense, federal officials negotiated a plea bargain from the 62-year-old defendant down “to three misdemeanor counts of unsafe operation of an (uncrewed) aircraft.”
One suspects if he decided to stand in “the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody,” the defendant might get off entirely.
Under the deal with prosecutors, the pilot copped to having violated Federal Aviation Administration drone rules on three occasions between June 2022 and last March. The defendant, identified as Alexander Milinovic, risks a maximum penalty of a year in prison for each offense.
Although precedent suggests he may get off with only a (albeit heavy) financial punishment for his rule flaunting, the judge overseeing his November 28 sentencing may decide the offenses deserves some time in the clink rooming Psycho Steve.
To illustrate why leniency may not wind up being factored into that decision, DroneDJ will allow prosecutors explain the details of the rule-obliterating drone flights.
On June 19, 2022, Milinovic launched his drone at a father and son who were flying an open-cockpit gyrocopter on Father’s Day. Milinovic flew the (uncrewed) aircraft to within 10 to 20 feet of the gyrocopter, which was off the coast of Crescent Bay Beach in Laguna Beach, which caused the son, who was operating the gyrocopter, to make an emergency course correction to avoid striking the drone and crashing into the Pacific Ocean.
On July 26, 2022, Milinovic launched a drone at and flew it next to a Discovery Channel “Shark Week” blimp flying at an altitude between 500 and 1,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean in the Laguna Beach area. The blimp’s pilot estimated the drone to be in line with hitting the blimp and causing him to navigate a life-threatening emergency crash landing.
On March 19, 2023, four members of a Coast Guard flight crew were flying a rescue helicopter about 200 to 300 feet above sea level in Laguna Beach. Milinovic launched a drone and flew it directly at the Coast Guard helicopter, coming to within 200 feet of it. The crew maneuvered the helicopter away from the drone, fearing it would hit their tail rotor and cause the helicopter to crash into the Pacific Ocean.
Read: Canada (heavily) fines drone pilot ‘unaware’ of flight bans near airports
Were that not bad enough, the final detail describing how Feds were tipped off to the criminal drone rule violations should finish off any possibility of indulgence in sentencing.
Not only did they receive a tip about an online video featuring a “drone flying dangerously close to aircraft,” but it was uploaded by a 62-year-old man… using TikTok.
Throw. Away. The. Key.
Image: Karl Greif/Unsplash
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