To some readers, the punishment may seem as bewildering as the offense it addressed. On Tuesday, a Virginia judge sentenced a pilot who repeatedly dive-bombed Salem firefighters with his unregistered drone to two years of probation – radically milder treatment than the maximum three-year prison stint and $250,000 fine that laws allow.
Guilt in the case was virtually never in question. As DroneDJ reported in November, the now 40-year old defendant admitted he’d been the pilot of the drone that continually buzzed a group of firefighters gathered outside their Salem station house in July, 2019. Not only did he continue making the aggressive swoops upon the first responders, but only relented when he flew the UAV into the building, where it lost contact with controller and crashed. “I know I’m guilty,” he said in entering his plea, albeit without offering any reasoning for his bonehead move. “I was the one operating the drone irresponsibly.”
In…
