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Pilot of "Radioactive Drone" Arrested

posted by CoolHand on Saturday April 25 2015, @11:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-glow-for-you dept.

takyon writes:

A man who landed a small drone carrying slightly radioactive sand onto the roof of the Japanese Prime Minister's office in Tokyo has turned himself in to authorities:

Yasuo Yamamoto, 40, was protesting over the Japanese government's nuclear energy policy. He turned himself in late on Friday, police said. No-one was hurt. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was out of the country.

The drone landing triggered a security alert and raised fears of extremists using drones to carry out attacks. The small amount of sand in the drone - which was equipped with a small camera - carried traces of radiation. Police said the radioactive material was likely to be caesium but the levels were too low to be harmful to human health.

Yasuo Yamamoto said that he was protesting the restart of nuclear reactors across Japan. Prime Minister Abe is backing the restart of Japan's nuclear reactors, which have been offline since the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

Yamamoto claimed that the sand came from Fukushima Prefecture (福島県), and was carrying some of the sand and a drone controller when he surrendered himself to police. He faces a maximum of three years in prison if convicted of "obstruction of official business". The drone is said to be a DJI Phantom 2.

 
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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Sunday April 26 2015, @12:02AM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Sunday April 26 2015, @12:02AM (#175201) Journal

    http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201504250021 [asahi.com]

    Yasuo Yamamoto, 40 and unemployed, turned himself in to the police and was promptly arrested, even though operating the device over Abe's office was not illegal.

    Yamamoto, a resident of Obama, Fukui Prefecture, said he placed sand from Fukushima Prefecture, site of the 2011 nuclear disaster, into a plastic container attached to the drone.

    During questioning, Yamamoto told the police that he writes an Internet blog under the name of “Kantei Santa” (Santa at the prime minister’s office).

    In a blog entry, Yamamoto wrote that he controlled the flight of a drone from a parking lot in Tokyo’s Akasaka district toward the front yard of the prime minister’s office around 3:30 a.m. on April 9, but later lost contact.

    In another entry, he said he tried to fly the drone toward the prime minister’s office last December but gave it up.

    With regard to the sand in the container, Yamamoto wrote in a blog entry that he went to Fukushima Prefecture last October and again in March to gather “contaminated soil.” He wrote that he placed 100 grams of the sand in the container on April 7.

    He started his blog in July 2014. In entries, Yamamoto indicated he planned to take a solitary stand against moves by the Abe administration to restart idled nuclear reactors. “I am a lone wolf,” one entry reads. “I will not hesitate to commit a terror act to stop restart (of nuclear reactors),” says another.

    After he flew the drone on April 9, Yamamoto wrote in his blog: “I returned home and watched a news program (on TV). But there were no reports (on my drone).”

    On April 18, he posted a photo showing him preparing a different drone. “I am steadily making preparations to fly the second arrow,” he wrote.

    On April 22, after media reports of a drone being found on the roof of the prime minister’s office, the blog read, “The drone was left as it was for two weeks.”

    The blog ended in the morning on April 24 with a posting that read, “I am sad because the security at the prime minister’s office is incompetent.”

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Sunday April 26 2015, @01:43AM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Sunday April 26 2015, @01:43AM (#175215)

    Geez, sounds like this guy is trying to get arrested.

    Also, that's a pretty low bar for terrorism. Flying an unarmed and basically harmless drone to somebody's house while they're not even there? Better call the SWAT to catch this guy!

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"

  • (Score: 2) by gnuman on Sunday April 26 2015, @05:39AM

    by gnuman (5013) on Sunday April 26 2015, @05:39AM (#175276)

    “I am sad because the security at the prime minister’s office is incompetent.”

    They found it only after a few days. Doesn't sound like that incompetent.

    For comparison, In US, someone shoots up the white house using high powered rifle and they only catch the guy 4 days later.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/16/bullet-hit-white-house-window-secret-service-confirms/ [foxnews.com]

    On another occasion, someone shot up the white house and they never even found out *when* that happened. And these guys supposedly have gunshot detector microphones.

    Anyway, the Japanese guy is a little crazy, to say the least.