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Drone pilot to plead guilty in collision that grounded aircraft
- jakedata 2y agoIf you squint, it looks like attempted murder. They let him off easy.
- basementcat 2y agoApparently killing people is not the taboo it used to be. Even 20 million lives currently threatened by the PEPFAR shutdown is hardly registering in the public consciousness here in the West.
- jakedata 2y ago20 million lives were threatened before politics changed in stupid ways and they will continue to be threatened after. It is an abstract concept to most people. If you operate your car unsafely - for instance by driving drunk and crashing into a fire truck - you will rapidly find out how quickly that registers in the consciousness of members of the public in a very concrete manner.
- euroderf 2y agoCase Luigi is orthogonal to this. Mass manslaughter by bureaucratization seems to be vivid enough to many people.
- echoangle 2y agoHonest question: How can it be murder if it is not intentional? Or are you saying he did this to kill the crew of the plane? Wouldn't it be Involuntary manslaughter if he just flew the drone and didn't take care of the airspace?
- jakedata 2y agoIt depends on whether it was done intentionally and with reckless disregard for human life. If the drone operator was intoxicated and caused the plane to crash it could very well be vehicular homicide.
- echoangle 2y agoNo it couldn’t, operating a drone isn’t „driving a vehicle“ as required for vehicular manslaughter in California. And vehicular manslaughter isn’t murder either.
- jakedata 2y agoPlease refer to California Assembly Bill No. 678, CHAPTER 747 [Approved by Governor October 14, 2007. Filed with Secretary of State October 14, 2007] Now I will grant you, a good defense lawyer would try to claim that killing someone with a remotely operated drone does not constitute "the operation of a motor vehicle, aircraft, or water vehicle that results in injury or death" but if you squint, it just might if they could prove intoxication.
- echoangle 2y agoBut the point still stands, even if it were vehicular manslaughter, it wouldn’t be murder.
- jakedata 2y ago^f murder dont reply if you can't be bothered to read.
- echoangle 2y agoWhat exactly do you mean? I looked here: http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0651-0700/ab_678_bill_20071014_chaptered.html http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0651-0700/ab_678... And the only single mention of „murder“ is for placing highway signs.
- demarq 2y agoI’m eternally grateful this individual isn’t a judge
- belter 2y agoAre you sure the drone and airplane collision was not caused by DEI policies?
- Pwntastic 2y agonon-paywalled link: https://12ft.io/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-31/la-me-drone-pilot-palisades-fire-feds-guilty-plea https://12ft.io/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/202...
- exabrial 2y agoGiven there was a direct impact with a plane, I'd expect something like a few months of jail time. Surprised, but I'm guessing the judge has their reasons.
- harambae 2y agoHe paid full restitution to fix the plane and also is doing 150 hours of community service to learn to not be reckless. Not really sure what actual jail time would accomplish in this case... more of a deterrent to others? Others probably already don't want to pay $65,000 and do 150 hours of community service. Unless they're just incredibly rich and also enjoy serving the community.
- zeagle 2y agoHopefully they also charge my government a 25% tariff for the humanitarian aid delivered by the plane a US resident damaged. /s Good grief. That must be expensive to fix.