FAA investigates illegal drone flight at Bengals Playoff game

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that it is investigating the illegal drone flight during the Cincinnati Bengals playoff game against the Las Vegas Raiders last Saturday.

Flying drones in and around NFL stadiums that seat 30,000 people or more is prohibited by law beginning one hour before and ending one hour after the scheduled time, according to the drone regulations set by the FAA.

Illegal drone flight captured on camera

Surprisingly, the video that shows the illegal drone footage can still be found on YouTube, and the footage suggests that many other drone rules might have been broken too.

A Cincinnati news outlet confirmed the FAA investigation on Wednesday morning and also quoted a fan who saw the drone flying above the crowd.

“I just happened to look up and see a light-colored drone flying around,” Dave Caldwell said. “It looked like it was the size of a small laptop computer.”

Various drone pros, including Chris Leasure, owner of Texoma Drone Solutions in Wichita Falls, Texas, filed complaints with the FAA after having seen the illegal drone footage.

“It's extremely dangerous to fly a drone over people who are not aware that the drone is there,” Leasure said.

A spokeswoman for the FAA said on Tuesday that the agency was not able to provide any information on the drone incident, which is usual for an ongoing investigation.

Exactly what drone rules have been broken during the illegal drone flight depends on whether the operator was flying as a recreational drone flyer or as a Part 107 Certified Remote Pilot.

However, even without looking at any of the FAA drone rules, it should be obvious to everybody that flying a drone in a packed stadium during a live sporting event is a terrible idea.

The photo shown above seems to show that the drone involved was a DJI Mavic 2 Pro. Also shown is how dangerously close the unmanned aircraft flew to cables inside the stadium.

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Let us know what you think about the illegal drone flight during the Bengals game in the comments below.

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