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Crime Technology

Science Teacher Arrested After Crashing Drone At US Open 179

An anonymous reader writes: We all had that science teacher growing up — the one who took his classroom experiments a little too far. The one with the potato cannon. The one who made you wonder how he didn't get into trouble in his spare time. Well, it's finally happened for one science teacher from New York City. The 26-year-old man was arrested last night after he crashed a drone into some empty seats at the U.S. Open. He was charged with reckless endangerment, reckless operation of a drone, and operating a drone in a New York City public park outside a prescribed area for doing so. Nobody was injured, but the drone did fly through the arena while a pair of tennis players were in the middle of a match. The game was briefly interrupted when the drone crashed.
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Science Teacher Arrested After Crashing Drone At US Open

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04, 2015 @08:08AM (#50456677)

    Idiots like this are why "we can't have nice things"

    Privacy issues aside, morons like this are why the drone-boys are going to be facing some new laws in the not-so-distant future.

    • Idiots like this are why "we can't have nice things"

      Privacy issues aside, morons like this are why the drone-boys are going to be facing some new laws in the not-so-distant future.

      Took the words right out of my mouth....

    • by Capt.Albatross ( 1301561 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @08:28AM (#50456815)

      Idiots like this are why "we can't have nice things"

      Privacy issues aside, morons like this are why the drone-boys are going to be facing some new laws in the not-so-distant future.

      Furthermore, behavior like this gives us an idea of what would happen if 'flying cars' were ever readily available.

      • Furthermore, behavior like this gives us an idea of what would happen if 'flying cars' were ever readily available.

        Also "autonomous" vehicles (which aren't really autonomous, after all).

    • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @08:46AM (#50456919)

      morons like this are why the drone-boys are going to be facing some new laws in the not-so-distant future.

      He was arrested. Why do we need "new laws" when his behavior is already illegal under existing law?

      • by KGIII ( 973947 )

        You're mistaking "need" for "going to be facing." You won't need new laws. You're going to get new ones with harsher maximum penalties even if you don't need them. I tried mentioning this and was modded to oblivion quite some time ago when people were first insisting that they could do anything they wanted with them. Good luck with that.

      • by PPH ( 736903 )

        Why do we need "new laws"

        Because the existing laws don't seem to be preventing this sort of behavior. In reality, its more of a statistical effect. Where the large increase in the number of drones (RC aircraft, etc.) in the hands of morons result in such incidents occurring more frequently.

  • by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @08:11AM (#50456693) Homepage

    What was he doing, going around saying "Anyone seen my drone?". Why didn't he toss the controller into the water get the hell out of there with a sign off to the class of "Thats what happens when you don't concentrate kids. Now everyone into the bus, fast!"

  • by BitZtream ( 692029 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @08:12AM (#50456703)

    Douches like this prick are why we can't have nice things.

    I fly all sorts of RC aircraft, Quads, fixed wing plane's, Helis, even a flying lawn mower (model, not actually a lawnmower) and I've been doing it for 25 years and never has there been an issue of people getting upset about it until recently.

    You know why? Cheap electronics introducing artificial stability at a price that allows any fucking moron without the slightest clue to buy one and manage to fly it for more than 10 seconds. Before artificial stability (i.e. before there was any hope of an RC quadcopter), pricks like this would have bought one, flown it for 10 seconds, crashed it in his front yard and that would be the end of it because he wouldn't be willing to spend that money again for another 10 seconds of flight time until he learned to fly. He'd never learn to fly because he's not bothering to try, he's just throwing it in the air without understanding how/why/when its going to come down and what effects thats going to have on others.

    When I see assholes like this, I tell them to get their fucking quad out of the air immediately or I'm calling the cops, and I've called them twice, the last for some asshole flying over a high school football game. Guy was a software dev at a large tech company, should fucking know better and understand that a 5 pound object falling on your head from even 10 feet above is WAY beyond potentially lethal.

    So take this worthless fuck out back, string him up by his testicles and keep him the fuck out of RC * so he doesn't fuck it up for the rest of us.

    This shit is why the FAA cares, and I'm 100% with them on it. I don't want additional laws, but this is a real problem in a new arena that previously had barriers to entry that kept idiots out. The modern flight controllers (which I use and love) are like exploit kits for script kiddies. They give ability to do something without the tempering that comes with learning how to do it 'the hard way', or understanding the consequences of what you're doing.

    I don't have a good solution to this problem because the problem is caused by adults who haven't grown up yet or are too selfish/ignorant to care and those are problems we've been dealing with since the beginning of time without solving, but it does have to be addressed, which problem means I'm going to get screwed in the process.

    I can not stress this statement enough: The guy flying that drone was an ignorant fucking asshole. 50 lashes wouldn't be enough.

    • Your drone is first flown into your face at maximum forward velocity.
      It is then dropped on your head from 30m, powered off.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I think you held back a little on that, tell us how you really feel. ;)

    • It's an eternal September for RC.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Yea. Damn people without thousands of spare dollars to spend on learing to fly stuff without artificial stability. They should learn to be rich.

      • Yea. Damn people without thousands of spare dollars to spend on learing to fly stuff without artificial stability. They should learn to be rich.

        Ah, so people who can't afford an expensive hobby should still get to do the hobby anyway, just irresponsibly?

        • Ah, so people who can't afford an expensive hobby should still get to do the hobby anyway, just irresponsibly?

          It's a dumb argument anyway, because most people don't have a front lawn into which they can crash their aircraft. Talk about an ivory tower perspective! If they didn't have stability software, then they'd be buying a heli or a plane without stability software, and then taking it to a public park or a school (commonly the nearest open field to a person's house) for their first flight. And they could well harm someone then. Instead, people are taking their first flights with their quads at home, because you

    • I agree 100000000000000% with your statement. Was this "teacher" ignorant? Yes (feel sorry for his students). Fucking asshole? Absolutely! These people will ruin it for the rest of us flyers. Already happening in California.

    • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @08:43AM (#50456907) Journal

      You know why?

      I think a big part of it is because the guys who flew RC aircraft over the years have been serious hobbyists and not "I bought this on Amazon" goofballs.

      I walk my 15 year old dog near a park where a lot of these guys fly their rigs. I've never met one who wasn't thoughtful about what he was doing and respectful of others' safety. They don't fly over the kid's playground, they don't fly over the traffic on the surrounding streets. They're human beings. A lot of them bring their kids and teach them the same appropriate behavior, while getting the kids interested in a cool hobby.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by bigpat ( 158134 )
      Sure, but the charge should have been trespassing or something like that. The drone hit some seats. This isn't like having a gasoline fight at a gas station kind of reckless.
      • Sure, but the charge should have been trespassing or something like that. The drone hit some seats. This isn't like having a gasoline fight at a gas station kind of reckless.

        No, this was having a baseball game in a crowded park kind of reckless. You could easily wind up hitting someone with a ball (or even a bat) in that kind of environment. This drone was easily heavy enough to harm someone if it fell on them, and he clearly wasn't as in control of it as he thought he was. As well, odds are it was powered by a LiPo, which is a fire hazard. (I have LiPos, I use them, but any time they are outside of their protective storage, you should have an extinguisher ready and you should

      • by PPH ( 736903 )

        The drone hit some seats.

        So if I brought my pistol to the US Open and fired it straight up, you'd be OK with that if it only hit an empty seat?

        • If the bullet moved at around a max of 10 mph, sure.

        • by bigpat ( 158134 )

          The drone hit some seats.

          So if I brought my pistol to the US Open and fired it straight up, you'd be OK with that if it only hit an empty seat?

          I'd be more okay with it than if you had shot me in the head. The more relevant example would be if you flew a small toy helicopter in the air that could maybe cause someone to go "ouch" or in the extreme could have caused about as much damage as a baseball or a small rock thrown in the air and it didn't hit anyone.... again... didn't hit anyone. Don't do it again. Have a nice day. End of story.

    • The modern flight controllers (which I use and love) are like exploit kits for script kiddies.

      That is one of the best analogies I have heard regarding to this topic.

  • by neilo_1701D ( 2765337 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @08:15AM (#50456723)

    Selfish idiots like this are going to ruin the hobby for all of us. The FAA rules are pretty clear [faa.gov]: 5 miles of an airport, nowhere near stadiums.

    Quads fall out of the sky. A motor fails, a battery unexpectedly dies (or explodes), a sensor goes haywire... the number of things that can cause a quad to quit working is endless. If something quits, it drops like a stone - and a responsible pilot know that.

    I hate the idea of an R/C license... but if it keeps the selfish idiots grounded then it's probably the way to go. Unfortunately.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      I hate the idea of an R/C license... but if it keeps the selfish idiots grounded then it's probably the way to go. Unfortunately.

      Is this like how we keep drugs off the streets, guns out of the hands of criminals, and unlicensed drivers off the road?

      How many times...

      • by Anonymous Coward

        It's how we keep people that don't know about radios on cell phones and not amateur radio bands.

      • Not to make excuses for them (especially in the prohibition arena), but it is how we keep garbage from accumulating in front of your house. And even though it gets dirty again, we still regularly change the oil in our cars, don't we? I believe the word is 'maintenance'.

  • It's all about me! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sizzzzlerz ( 714878 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @08:22AM (#50456787)

    It's the US Open, watched in person by thousands, and on TV by millions but rather than making it all about the tennis players, this dipshit feels that the Open should be all about him and his toys. So he flys his drone over the stadium and ends up crashing into some seats, causing a delay in the match-in-progress, lucky not to have hurt someone in the stands. He's yet one more example of an adolescent in adult form who is incapable of recognizing that this is not an appropriate place to play and not too overly concerned about its ramifications. Fines and a little jail time are exactly what he deserves.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I don't see what his being a science teacher has to do with any of this. The summary makes it sound like he was doing something kooky to teach his kids in a unique way, but he wasn't doing this to teach anything. He was just another irresponsible dumbass with a drone.

  • It's looking more and more like something akin to ham radio licensing should be required for drone over a certain size and/or range.
    Even an easy exam would insure people have basic safety knowledge and establish a minimum level of accountability.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      No respecting private property and enforcing property laws is what is needed.

      Him crashing is not what is relevant.
      Him flying over private property is what is relevant.

  • I'm glad to see that asshole get arrested. He, and others like him are ruining it for the rest of us who USE OUR FUCKING HEADS.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Drones are the new laser pointers

  • The guy who lost his permitted king cobra in florida has had nothing happen to him. The guy in texas who lost his cobra was killed by it. And then there is the guy in california who was bit by the rattlesnake he was playing with. So should we ban all snakes?

    • So should we ban all snakes?

      We should probably require that people who want to keep venomous snakes demonstrate the ownership of a sufficient enclosure.

  • Ah, science teachers (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Friday September 04, 2015 @09:28AM (#50457177) Homepage

    My abiding memory of science teaching was the chemistry teacher who wanted to demonstrate the reactivity of phosphorous with air. He pulled a large stick of phosphorus (oxidised on the outside) out of a jar of water and carefully sliced off a small section. He then rushed to drop the rest of the stick back into the jar of water, but he missed and it bounced off the rim of the jar, landed on the table and promptly burst into flames and began to fill the room with fumes.

    Science!

    • At least he didn't harm the kids. Not like those boring teachers who manage to get their whole class to permanently hate the subject. Wish someone would arrest some of those.

    • Heh... My favorite science teacher back in high school blew out the fume hood with a zinc dust/sulfur reload of an Estes model rocket engine. One of his demos had two police officers bursting into the room. (That one was actually completely harmless; he was demoing electrolysis of water, bubbling the stoichiometric results through soapy water, and lighting the bubbles to the delight of all. Made a crack like a .22. It just so happened that there had been some riots earlier, so there was police presence

  • Couldn't one of the tennis players just knock it down? Heck, even Chimpanzees can figure out how to do that [nationalgeographic.com]
  • It it was a DRONE, it probably wouldn't have crashed and wouldn't be flying manually controlled. Title should be "Numbnut crashes his quadcopter at the Open" with a photo of the him titled "Would you let this man teach your children?".

  • Drones are a major development and as such need to be compared with other major developments as far as issues like safety are concerned. Yes, peaceful drones will kill or harm people in accidents from time to time. In the near future we will all know someone who was smacked and harmed by a drone. Now compare that with automobiles. Automobiles are a recent development in this world and they kill people every day. How about motorcycles? We all know people who have died or suffered a serious injury fr

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