Posted on 06/09/2017 4:05:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A power outage affecting about 1,600 PG&E customers between Mountain View's Shoreline West and Old Mountain View neighborhoods Thursday night may have been caused by a drone hitting a high-voltage wire, police said. Officers responding to reports of a power outage around 8:15 p.m. were told by witnesses on Polaris Avenue, in the Rex Manor neighborhood, that a white-haired white man had been flying a drone in the area, which is not permitted, and that the drone had hit a high-voltage wire.
The Federal Aviation Administration does not allow drones to be flown within 5 miles of an airport such as Moffett Field, which is about 3 miles from Polaris Avenue, without notification. Drones are also not to be flown near people and must be kept clear of obstacles, according to the FAA.
The outage lasted until after 11 p.m. and impacted City Hall and the Mountain View Public Library, which are both about a mile from the reported drone crash.
The library, which is normally open until 9 p.m. Thursdays, was evacuated out of an abundance of caution, city officials said.
Repair work on the damage, which city officials said totaled tens of thousands of dollars, was completed early this morning.
Police are seeking help identifying the man who was flying the drone, who witnesses said drove away in a white hatchback.
The govt will outlaw private drone useage if this keeps happening
It was Jerry Brown.
Brown doesn’t have any hair, let alone white.
Is Phil Donahue still alive?
Hardly. They can’t even require registration anymore.
Don’t depend on that
If he had not been a white, white haired, Man they would still be trying to identify him
Any public power transmission system that can’t take a minor arc like a small drone would induce is badly designed or poorly maintained.
Knowing Cali, likely both.
Tying a length of copper wire to a drone and then flying into into a sub-station would sure cause a ruckus.
See!
It’s the perfect disguise!
There is private drone usage and commercial drone usage. In the commercial usage you have to pass an FAA exam (UAG) pretty much based on the sport/recreational/private pilot exam.
That is some bad reporting.
You have a lower ceiling withing five miles of an airport.
Drones are limited to 400 ft to begin with.
So what do I have to do to make a drone crash ‘legal’??
.
There’s no way that any drone could take out a high voltage transmission circuit.
I’ve seen them arc to their own tower frequently without doing any damage nor cutting the circuit.
Probably a switch failure.
Nailed it! I wonder where Marty wound up this time.
Wow! Until reading this headline, I never imagined that a permit/license/etc was required before crashing a drone...
I can see terrorist applications.
Oh yeah
But then terrorists use whatever they can
>
Tying a length of copper wire to a drone and then flying into into a sub-station would sure cause a ruckus.
>
Come now, they can’t even stop anyone from shooting up the transformers/etc. (least, last I recall, it was still ‘being looked into’).
Hell, I’m ready for a ‘Cabin Fever’ incident from these ‘sight-seers’ @ your local reservoirs. Typical pleeb jaywalking on the other hand....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.