The City of San Diego was among the California cities with the highest number of drone safety incidents in a look at statewide data from the Federal Aviation Administration.
In a report released by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office using FAA data, San Diego had the third most drone safety incidents in the state between April 2014 and August 2015. Los Angeles and San Jose were ranked above San Diego.
The City of San Diego had 14 incidents. The county as a whole, including areas like Carlsbad and Ramona, had 23 incidents. And the frequency of incidents has steadily increased since 2014.
When a sandwich shop caught fire in Kearny Mesa in August, firefighters reported a drone distracting their crews on high ladders. San Diego Fire-Rescue officials warned operators of the dangers via a Tweet.
In San Bernardino, flames jumped onto Interstate 15 destroying dozens of cars and trucks. Drones forced firefighting helicopters to pull back, costing first-responders valuable time.
The idea a little drone can't bring down a large aircraft, is a big misconception, according to San Diego Fire Chief of Air Operations Chris Heiser.
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“A drone will bring down one of these helicopters,” Heiser said referring to one of the agency’s fire helicopters.
At the very least, but still very detrimental, a drone could stop firefighting and rescuing efforts.
“If we see a drone or someone reports a drone, all the aircraft pull off the incident until that drone is on the ground,” Heiser said.
Treggon Owens, CEO of AERIAL Mob, a San Diego-based drone company and a leader in the industry, wants to see drone users fined in those incidents.
“I think it’s incredibly irresponsible for people to be going interfering with firefighting just to get a YouTube video up,” Owens said.
His company is built on the idea that drone activity be safe and legal, and when operators fail to abide by the rules, he feels it’s the worst thing about the industry.
Earlier this month, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed legislation that would criminalize the operation of drones. The bill proposed giving firefighters immunity for disabling hobbyist drones flying over emergency situations.
According to the data, none of the incidents in the city of San Diego interfered with emergency response operations and there were no collisions.
