Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Monday January 01 2018, @09:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the line-of-slight dept.

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666_

On September 21, 2017, just as dusk fell, Vyacheslav Tantashov launched his DJI Phantom 4 drone from a spot near Dyker Beach Park in Brooklyn, just southeast of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Tantashov wanted to see some spectacular views, he said, and he flew the drone nearly 280 feet up in the air and well out of his line of sight. The drone hovered over the shipping channel near Hoffman Island, some 2.5 miles from the launch site. Tantashov maneuvered the craft a bit, watching the images displayed on his Samsung tablet, and then punched the "return to home" button. The drone, which had a rapidly dying battery, made a beeline back toward the launch site.

But it never arrived. After waiting 30 minutes, Tantashov assumed there had been a mechanical malfunction and that the drone had fallen into the water. He returned home. On September 28, Tantashov received a call at work. It was an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), calling to asking if Tantashov was the owner of a Phantom 4 drone. He was, he said, though he had lost it recently near the Verrazano Bridge.

Would Tantashov be surprised to learn, the investigator asked, that his drone had not crashed into the water? And that it had instead slammed into the main rotor of a US Army-operated Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter that was patrolling for the UN General Assembly in Manhattan? And that it had put a 1.5-inch dent in said rotor and led to the helicopter diverting back to its New Jersey base? Tantashov was surprised, and he agreed to a one-hour interview the next day, during which the full story came out.

[...] Tantashov didn't know about more detailed flight restrictions, such as the [temporary flight restrictions (TFRs)] around Manhattan and Bedminster, New Jersey, where the president had been staying. "He said that he relied on 'the app' to tell him if it was OK to fly," the investigator noted. "When asked about TFRs, he said he did not know about them; he would rely on the app, and it did not give any warnings on the evening of the collision. He said he was not familiar with the TFRs for the United Nations meeting and Presidential movement." (Both TFRs were apparently violated by the drone flight.)

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/drone-collides-with-us-army-helicopter-puts-1-5-dent-in-rotor/


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @06:02PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @06:02PM (#616465)

    Would Tantashov be surprised to learn, the investigator asked, that his drone had not crashed into the water? And that it had instead slammed into the main rotor of a US Army-operated Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter that was patrolling for the UN General Assembly in Manhattan? And that it had put a 1.5-inch dent in said rotor and led to the helicopter diverting back to its New Jersey base?

    What is this Valley Girl up-speak summary!? Go back to BookFace with that bullshit.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   -1  
       Flamebait=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Flamebait' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   -1  
  • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday January 01 2018, @06:17PM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 01 2018, @06:17PM (#616472) Journal

    We don't edit the quoted portion of the stories that we publish. We would quickly be accused of putting words into someone else's mouth and on the first legal challenge we would be shut down. If we quote somebody, we had better make sure that we do it accurately, and that we are able to fully justify any minor changes that we might have to make to explain terms, abbreviations or concepts.

    Outside of the quoted portion is usually left to the submitter but we can edit it if required.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 01 2018, @06:54PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday January 01 2018, @06:54PM (#616482) Journal

    Ohhhhh, it is so heinous. And it is so, like, totally Valley Girl speak. The rest of your day has been like, TOTALLY TRASHED by this reading unsperience.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]