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The fact is that the operation of drones is legally prohibited in certain ways to avoid any chance of drones and aircraft intercepting each other in flight. Wh

• jsjohnst 9y ago
  > Whoever the operator of the drone is, they are wholly responsible for illegal operation of their drone and the results thereafter. Absolutely correct in a general sense. In this story though, it’s not exactly clear who is at fault though with the details given. - Helicopter was doing hovering drills This means they were below 400ft - Crash occurred in a remote area per article This implies they were not near an airport, but it’s inconclusive based on the article alone. It’s entirely possible the DJI pilot was flying on his/her own land. - both instructor and student said they saw the drone Doesn’t indicate how far away the drone was however. I have a feeling though either the quadcopter pilot was either flying FPV (aka in violation of the line of sight rule) or wasn’t giving appropriate clearance to the helicopter, so ultimately they could partially be at fault. Overall, it seems to me the root cause was the instructor overreacting. The instructor should’ve landed the helicopter if they didn’t have situational awareness enough to know a tree was nearby. Replace “drone” with any other object in the air (say a kite flown by a kid or a bird or whatever) and would you have the same “blame goes to the other party, not instructor” perspective?