Man to admit to using drone that collided with Super Scooper during Palisades Fire
A Southern California man admitted to operating a drone that collided with a firefighting airplane during the Palisades Fire as the blaze was charring tens of thousands of acres earlier this month, officials said Friday.
Peter Tripp Akemann, a 56-year-old Culver City man, agreed to plead guilty to one count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft, according to court documents.
Akemann went to the third floor of the Third Street Promenade parking garage on Jan. 9, launched his drone and lost sight of it before it collided with a Super Scooper on loan from Quebec, officials said.
"Firefighters were desperately trying to stop the destruction being caused by the fires and save lives. Critical to those efforts were firefighting aircraft that were conducting all-out assaults in the area surrounding the wildfires," Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally told reporters on Friday.
'Contrary to law and basic common sense, some individuals were recklessly operating drones around the firefighting relief efforts."
The collision caused a 3-by-6-inch hole in the plane, officials said. Though it was able to land safely, that hole knocked the Super Scooper out of service for several days during the heart of firefighting efforts.
Akemann is expected to appear in federal court about 4 p.m. ET on Friday, officials said.
Akemann could face up to a year behind bars, though defense attorney Vicki Podberesky said she doesn't believe her client, who 'accepts responsibility for his grave error in judgement,' will be sent to prison for this misdemeanor.
The defendant had relied on a "geo-fencing safeguard feature" on the drone that failed that day, his lawyer said.
"We believe that there are mitigating circumstances that would warrant a lenient sentence," Podberesky said Friday.
The Palisades Fire ignited on the morning of Jan. 7, had torched more than 23,000 acres by Friday and was 98% contained, according to California fire authorities.
At least 29 people were killed as flames from the Pasadies and Easton Fires in the Palisades neighborhood of L.A. and Altadena, north of downtown, blew through the region with horrifically astonishing speed.
Some of Southern California's most desired real estate — on beaches and in canyons and hills — went up in smoke during a terrifying week earlier this month.
Those twin blazes posted once-in-lifetime challenges for firefighters who often had no water due to the extreme demand to douse so many flames at one time.This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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