Drone Operator Blamed for Collision With Helicopter in New York
- Drone struck Army helicopter Sept. 21 near Staten Island
- NTSB releases report on first U.S. mid-air drone collision
A DJI Phantom 4 Pro Quadcopter drone.
Photographer: Omer Messinger/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
A recreational operator, who didn’t know that federal authorities had temporarily banned all drone flights in New York, was to blame for a September collision between his recreational device aircraft and an Army helicopter.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday also cited the drone operator’s failure to see the helicopter because the device was flying so far away it was out of his sight. The drone operator, who wasn’t identified in the short report, was in Brooklyn and 2.5 miles away from the device, the NTSB concluded. The crash happened just offshore of Staten Island.