Drone hampers aeromedical crew from landing at MVA

Flying a drone and causing trouble during an actual call?

See, I told you that it would happen. To verify, check my documentation from my AAR on 03-06-14 (AirOps Branch-Observation/Recommendation-3 on page 16).

IMG_5603

@rusnivek

 

 

Police: Ohio Man’s Drone Prevents Medical Helicopter from Landing at Crash Scene

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — A man is facing charges after deputies say he was flying a video camera-equipped drone that hindered the landing of a medical helicopter at an accident scene.

Kele Stanley, of Springfield, said he’s been unfairly charged and would have landed it immediately if he knew the medical helicopter was en route.

“I’m not an idiot,” he said.

The hobbyist was flying the $4,000 drone over a crash scene on Saturday morning to shoot photos and video.

Authorities said both fire officials and a Clark County sheriff’s deputy told Stanley to stop flying his remote-controlled aircraft because the helicopter was preparing to land, and that he refused. The helicopter was able to land and depart safely from the scene.

Stanley is facing a felony charge of obstructing official business and misdemeanor charges of misconduct at an emergency and disorderly conduct. He pleaded not guilty during a court appearance Monday and said he’s going to hire a lawyer to fight the charges.

Stanley, a 31-year-old copy-machine repairman and videographer, said he flew his remote-controlled “hexacopter” about 75 feet above where a pickup had hit a tree in Moorefield Township near Springfield. He said he was shooting the video as a hobby and would have turned it over to local television stations, as he has done before.

There currently are no regulations in Ohio governing private use of the unmanned aircraft, although law enforcement agencies must get special permits to use them. The Federal Aviation Administration bars the commercial use of drones.

Ice and Water Rescue in NW Ohio – All-Hazards Full Scale Exercise

Spending a bunch of time in NW Ohio with several emergency services agencies focused in on Water/Ice Rescue.

IMG_5579

Did some GPS coordinate work, observation and recon work, and of course some grid search pattern work.

IMG_5570

A few of my peeps testing their newly acquired National Incident Management System (NIMS) Incident Command System (ICS) concepts.

IMG_5576

Had a chance to interact with a few of the NW Ohio water rescue resources as well as a few aeromedical agencies too.

IMG_5603

I’m glad to see so many willing all-hazards participants involved in this exercise.

IMG_5581

Also glad to see local and regional law enforcement participation in the day’s events too.

IMG_5567

Despite relatively colder temps, all crews managed to say jovial and warm.

IMG_5557 - Copy

Thanks again to my cadre of ICS Subject Matter Experts in Operations, Logistics, Public Information, Communications, and Air Operations who assisted today with evaluation.

@rusnivek