What happens if you shoot down a delivery drone?

https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/07/what-happens-if-you-shoot-down-a-delivery-drone/

by thunderbong • 2 years ago

16 38 2 years ago

uyzstvqs• 2 years ago

It crashes, and you inconvenience several people. The ramifications might look something like criminal damage to property, unlawful use of a firearm, and possibly theft if that's your intention.

fuzzfactor• 2 years ago

Depending on who owns the drone, it might just call for backup of a higher caliber.

leros7• 2 years ago

The government doesn't differentiate much between aircraft and drones. As I understand it, shooting down a drone is a federal crime and can you get you 20 years in prison.

rasz• 2 years ago

Is shooting down an RC toy also a "federal crime and can you get you 20 years in prison"?

dghlsakjg• 2 years ago

Yes. An RC Toy is another word for a drone. If you shoot down things under the FAA's jurisdiction they will be interested. They have publicly maintained that position since 2016.

The FAA, despite their behaviour with Boeing, will absolutely make an example of people who do stupid things.

leros7• 2 years ago

A drone is considered an aircraft by the FAA. It's not just an RC toy.

There is a small carve out that drones under 250g can be flown recreationally by anyone, but most drone flights are being done by pilots who have remote pilot licenses from the FAA. Their drones are aircrafts with all the same legal protections as a plane.

Commerical drones like deliveries would definitely not be considered an RC toy.

red-iron-pine4• 2 years ago

"Drone" is a legal term defined by the FAA.

Aircraft under a certain size, like 250g -- yes, 250 grams -- are toys, and generally don't require a license.

Above 250g are Drones, and require FAA-related certifications to operate. They are aircraft, and are covered by laws protecting aircraft (18 U.S.C. § 32).

Messing with those will catch you Federal (felony) charges, and could get you in prison.

Bluescreenbuddy• 2 years ago

You get buttf*cked by the FAA and the feds. You don't own the airspace above your home and it's heavily regulated.

hansvm2• 2 years ago

You do (in the US), but there's a presumed right of way granting some privileges to aircraft in that space. Separately, destruction of property is rarely a legal resolution mechanism for trespass, even when the drones aren't operating legally.

For some thought experiments, imagine somebody building a large dome over your property, only ever intersecting the airspace. Or if you built a tall building on your own land intersecting with the airspace low-flying planes used to use. Both scenarios would definitely be found in your favor; the FAA won't be the body preventing your tall building, and you'd have no trouble getting a court to remove the trespassing dome.

leros7• 2 years ago

This came up in my FAA drone training. There is nothing legally preventing a drone pilot from hovering an inch over the grass in your backyard. They can't land as it's your private property but class G airspace extends all the way down to ground level and is under federal control.

PrivateButts• 2 years ago

Didn't spot it in the article but shooting a gun into the air can get you reckless endangerment in NY, if they don't find you guilty of something worse.

Something that I think would be nice is an op out process for personal/commercial drone flights under a reasonable altitude over one's house. Even without the privacy concern getting buzzed by multiple delivery drones a day wouldn't be fun.

threecheese• 2 years ago

Would drone harassment have similar criminal consequences?

Consider a fleet of much smaller drones “guarding” one’s airspace (putting aside that we do not own it, which IMO is a byproduct of past legislative lack of imagination), that simply get in the way of a large delivery drone. With some level of aggressiveness.

red-iron-pine4• 2 years ago

Drones above a certain size are regulated by the FAA and are considered aircraft.

Shooting down aircraft means you'll face FAA-related charges, and they will be hefty.

Under federal law, willfully shooting down an aircraft (including drones) is a felony that may lead to imprisonment (18 U.S.C. § 32)—not to mention other potential liability tied to discharging a firearm into the sky.

nostrademons2• 2 years ago

Though if you really have fleet of drones "guarding" your airspace - will the FAA actually be able to enforce? Considering that at that point you basically have an air force, and if the drones are cheap and effective enough, it may be better than the air force available to the FAA?

hellojesus2• 2 years ago

You don't necessarily need to shoot down drones. You can have your drone (under registration-required size) intercept and collide with the target drone.

Or you can have your done jam the other drone and try to confuse it into aborting its mission and doing an emergency landing.

Or you could try to "swallow" the target drone and then deploy some safe-landing chute or chemically inflate a balloon to make a controlled fall.

I assume there are some property damage or theft charges, but getting around faa current regulations should be doable.

RaftPeople• 2 years ago

Alternatively you could plant trees.

red-iron-pine4• 2 years ago

FAA charges, presumably

iamleppert• 2 years ago

Can't wait until Walmart tries to fly one of their beasts over my land. They'll be getting the business end of my 12 gauge.

mikestew2• 2 years ago

Can’t wait until it becomes clear that documenting intent to commit a crime is a bad idea.

Not that anyone with any sense would actually do this. Shooting at things that have cameras, and always know their exact location, is a spectacularly bad idea to me. But anonymous internet tough guys gonna type what they type.

JoeAltmaier2• 2 years ago

A little tone-deaf? What is it called to operate vehicles intended to trespass, cause noise ordinance violations, endanger the public? And they create press releases to announce those activities. I guess they need some of that advice.

leros7• 2 years ago

And you will be going to prison for shooting down an aircraft.

johann8384• 2 years ago

Good luck.

My VTOL is just under 7' wide, flies at about 50mph. Once it transitions to fixed wing after take off its silent and at 300' just a tiny dot.

My quad is not silent but at 300' you can't really hear it unless you are listening for it. It's flying about 25mph and is just under 3' in diameter. It's impossible to see.

Please don't try to shoot at drones, it's dangerous and incredibly unlikely you'd hit the target.

If you want to take down a drone interrupt the control channel, intercept it with another drone, hit it with an EMP, take out the pilot. Be smart.

JoeAltmaier2• 2 years ago

Just btw, none of that describes a delivery drone which is by necessity going cautiously toward rendezvous with a delivery location. Which describes an easy target. An consider that a shotgun doesn't have to be very precisely aimed, by design.

So amusing, to hear the advice that it's a better idea to take out the pilot than the drone. Haven't heard that one before.

beretguy• 2 years ago

It falls on a ground, broken.

What happens if you shoot down a delivery drone?

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