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US firefighters have condemned drone owners who flew their craft near forest fires and grounded helicopters being used to douse flames.
Lives were put at unnecessary risk because helicopters could not fly, said fire department officials. The helicopters were helping to contain a large wildfire in San Bernadino county over the weekend. Five drones spotted hovering over the fire were thought to be shooting video for their owners.
The activity of the drones meant helicopters were grounded for about 20 minutes, Eric Sherwin of the San Bernadino fire department told CNN.
[...]
"When a hobby drone is flown into a fire area, incident commanders have no choice but to suspend air operations and ground aircraft until the drone is removed from the area," it said.The fire department issued images that were shared on social media, warning drone owners to stay away from fires. "If you fly, we can't," they said.
US rules governing drone use mean any pilot caught flying their craft over a disaster area that has temporary flight restrictions in place could be fined up to $25,000 (£16,000). It is not clear whether the FAA is going to investigate who was piloting the drones over the Interstate 15 fire.
Drones have hindered firefighters in California at least four times before now, sometimes stopping flights for up to 90 minutes.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @02:57PM
Because nobody was stupid enough to fly RC planes over a disaster area. With "drones" being so easy to control thanks to GPS, barometric altitude sensors, gyro and accelerometers, and equipped with a stabilized camera, people who wouldn't be able to fly an RC plane for a minute without crashing are now in control of the skies.