A Los Angeles aircraft has been grounded and pulled from firefighting service in the United States (US) after being hit by a civilian drone.
According to the LA County Fire Department, the Canadair CL-415 ‘Super Scooper’ was struck on January 9, 2025, at 13:30, local time, while operating in the ‘Palisades’ fire area.
The grounding of the lifesaving aircraft will come as a massive blow to the LA region, as firefighters try to defend homes and businesses from the devastating fires that have so far resulted in the deaths of ten people.
The Super Scooper, Quebec 1, was struck on its wing and sustained damage during the incident, though thankfully resulted in no injuries.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the incident and reminded the public that it is a federal crime to interfere with firefighting efforts on public lands. If found guilty, a person could face up to 12 months in prison and a civil penalty.
SuperScooper grounded after drone strike pic.twitter.com/a7ApxeNHm1
— L.A. County Fire Department (@LACoFDPIO) January 10, 2025
In a statement, the FAA said: “The FAA can impose a civil penalty of up to $75,000 against any drone pilot who interferes with wildfire suppression, law enforcement or emergency response operations when temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) are in place.”
The regulator added: “The FAA treats these violations seriously and immediately considers swift enforcement action for these offenses. The FAA has not authorized anyone unaffiliated with the Los Angeles firefighting operations to fly drones in the TFRs.”
In response to the incident, LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone has declared that the FBI would deploy technology in the area to combat any drones trying to capture footage of the five remaining blazes.
Governor of California Gavin Newsom has said that at least six air tankers and 40 helicopters are taking part in the operations, along with over 8,000 personnel.
There are currently five fires burning in the Los Angeles area, with firefighters making some significant headway in the last 12 hours as winds have dropped.
The newest fire, ‘Kenneth’, which broke out on January 8, 2025, is now 35% contained, while the ‘Hurst’ fire near Santa Clarita is now 37% contained.
The largest fire, ‘Palisades’, is now 6% contained and the ‘Lidia’ fire 75% contained. The ‘Eaton’ fire remains the only blaze that firefighters have so far been unable to contain.
4 comments
I hate to say it, but this was bound to happen.
I know now that drones are becoming a way of life, but there a lot of operators that are unaware or just don’t care about the safety regulations administered by the FAA. Luckily, this idiot just dinged the 415. It could have downed a multi-million dollar aircraft just doin its job of protecting people and their homes.
To the Angelinos, my heart goes out to you all, mostly to the 1st responders.
By the looks of the impacting parts, this was a very small hobby/toy drone and may well have been operated by a child, or some sort of self-ordained media/social website user and are oblivious to rules, common sense, or the ability to consider others, etc.
Whoever was operating this drone is extremely unintelligent, and criminal.
They deserve jail time, flat out!
This is just a little toy drone, imagine if the pipe-dream of all these drones, eVTOLS, autonomous and UAV flying objects are buzzing around.
Billions have been invested, wasted, lost, and yet to be lost because there is no serious consideration of maintenance, airspace, flight planning, operations, safety, weight & balance, asymmetrical thrust, crash worthiness/head-strike zones zones, regulations (very few of the myriads of required regs exist, etc.)
And lets not forget how the East Coast of the US lost their minds over “drones” flying near, around, over their homes and military spaces.
The fantasy and panacea is getting closer to collapsing as about 10 drone companies a week are failing, and several of them were heavily invested programs with lots of dreams and very little leadership or consideration of the certification process.