Don’t interfere with wildland fire operations when flying your drone!

“Don’t interfere with wildland fire operations when flying your drone!” is the message that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wants to get across to all drone pilots. A recent example of a fire fighting operation that was interrupted by an unauthorized drone happened last week during the East Plum Fire in Colorado.

Don’t interfere with wildland fire operations when flying your drone!

In this video, Vic Moss spoke with CBS4 about wildland fire fighting operations being interrupted by drones. According to Moss, over the past year, there have been 100 documented cases of drones in the area of wildfires across the country.

“The issue is that the air support can’t fly when there’s a drone in the air, there’s always that possibility of collision and people just don’t understand that they want to go up and get a cool photograph or cool video of the fire and that’s just not a good idea,” Moss said.

Moss also explained that it is not easy for a manned aircraft to avoid a drone, that despite their small size could cause a plane to crash.

“They have to worry about whether if they see a drone are they going to hit it, those ladies and gentlemen are flying so low to the ground that they have to have 100 percent concentration or else catastrophe, and if they have to worry about a drone, then we’re affecting them,” he said.

It is highly advisable to check apps such as B4UFLY before you start flying your drone. Especially when you see of smell smoke in the air. The app will let you know if it is ok to fly or if there is a Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) in place. Anyone flying a drone in violation of TFR could be fined up to $1,000 and face jail time.

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