Moab Firefighting Helicopter Dodges Unauthorized Drone, 17 Months After The Super Scooper Collision

A firefighting helicopter working a brush fire near Moab, Utah encountered an unauthorized drone over the active fire area, and state fire managers responded by publishing photos of what past drone strikes have done to aircraft. The warning lands 17 months after a DJI Mini punched a hole in a Super Scooper over the Palisades Fire and grounded it mid-disaster. Utah Fire Info disclosed the close call in a social media post, and ABC4 in Salt Lake City reported it on June 9. Nobody was hurt and nothing collided this time.

The fire itself started as a house fire that spread into adjacent brush near Highland Drive and Murphy Lane in the Moab area. When the helicopter crew spotted the drone overhead, the airspace stopped being theirs to work in.

I covered the Palisades collision from the day it happened, 17 months ago. The fact that fire agencies are still teaching the same lesson with collision damage photos tells you how little operator behavior has changed since.

Utah Fire Info Pairs A Near Miss With Collision Evidence

Utah Fire Info reported that the Moab helicopter came across the drone during the fire response, that no collision or injury occurred, and that the drone’s presence alone created a serious safety hazard for the crew working the fire, ABC4 reported.

“Even a small drone can shatter a windshield, damage critical aircraft components,” the agency warned, urging pilots to keep drones grounded and well away from any smoke or firefighting aircraft. The agency closed with the slogan that has anchored federal wildfire messaging for years: if you fly, we can’t.

Alongside the warning, officials shared photos of damage from previous drone collisions with aircraft, plus a U.S. Forest Service infographic carrying the if-you-fly-we-can’t message. One of the damage photos, showing the bagged remains of a small DJI drone wrapped in evidence tape, appears to match the FBI’s evidence photo from a case every drone pilot in America should know by name.

The Palisades Super Scooper Collision Set The Price Of Flying Near A Fire

On January 9, 2025, a DJI Mini 3 Pro struck the left wing of a Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper that the Government of Quebec had sent to help fight the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles, punching a 7.6 by 15 centimeter (3 by 6 inch) hole in the wing and grounding the aircraft for roughly five days while one of the most destructive fires in California history kept burning.

The operator, Culver City resident Peter Tripp Akemann, had launched the drone from a parking garage near Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade to look at the fire damage. He flew it roughly 2,500 meters (more than 1.5 miles) out, lost sight of it, and never saw the airplane it hit. An active Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) prohibited all drone flights over the fire at the time. Akemann pleaded guilty to unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft, a federal misdemeanor, and was sentenced in September 2025 to 14 days in federal prison, 30 days of home detention, roughly $156,000 in restitution, and 150 hours of community service.

That is the full price of one curiosity flight with a sub-250 gram drone. The Moab pilot, whoever they are, came within one unlucky flight path of the same outcome.

One Drone Sighting Grounds Aircraft For Hours And Lets Fires Grow

A single drone sighting near a wildfire forces fire managers to clear the airspace, because aviation crews must assume the drone stays airborne for its full battery cycle plus a safety buffer. Helicopters land. Tankers divert. The fire keeps burning while the clock runs.

Utah has seen exactly what that costs. At the Buckley Draw Fire near Provo in 2025, repeated drone incursions cost crews between six and a half and eleven hours of aircraft time, with fixed-wing aircraft sent to circle 16 to 32 kilometers (10 to 20 miles) away for 25 to 30 minutes per sighting, KUER reported. A single-engine air tanker runs more than $2,000 per operating hour. A large tanker can hit $20,000.

The problem is getting worse, not better. The United States logged 218 wildfire drone incursions in 2025, the most ever recorded. Enforcement is catching up on both sides of the border: a British Columbia pilot was fined CAD $5,000 after a helicopter pilot broke off firefighting to chase his drone over Okanagan Lake. Utah state law adds its own layer, with penalties for flying in a wildfire TFR that scale from a misdemeanor up to a felony when a drone interferes with suppression aircraft.

Wildfires Are Not The Only TFRs On The Map This Summer

Restricted airspace in the United States now extends well beyond fire zones, and this summer the map is more crowded than it has ever been. The FIFA World Cup kicks off June 11, and the FAA has published TFRs covering all 11 U.S. host stadiums with a 5.6 kilometer (3 nautical mile) radius up to 914 meters (3,000 feet) on match days, plus tighter rings over a dozen fan festival sites. More than 100 additional restrictions sit over team hotels and training camps, including in cities hundreds of miles from any match. Violating an event TFR carries civil penalties up to $75,000 and criminal exposure on top.

The rule of thumb is simple. Do not fly near wildfires, first responders, or large events. Before any flight, check the FAA’s TFR list or an app that displays live TFR data, because many of these restrictions, like the Moab fire response, appear with no warning at all.

DroneXL’s Take

I reported on the Super Scooper collision within hours of it happening on January 9, 2025, and I have been tracking the fallout ever since: the FBI manhunt, the guilty plea, the sentencing, and last month the record 218 incursions for 2025. Moab is the version of that story where the dice came up lucky. Same drone class, same fire airspace, same pilot decision. The only difference is a few meters of separation.

What strikes me about Utah Fire Info’s response is the imagery. The agency did not settle for a poster. It published photos of real collision damage, and one of them appears to be the FBI’s evidence photo of the shredded DJI Mini from the Palisades case, the same image DroneXL ran in January 2025. Fire agencies have figured out that a drone in an evidence bag communicates more than any infographic, and agencies from California to British Columbia keep reaching for that kind of proof.

Utah’s 2026 fire season is just getting started, and the western fire outlook runs through October. Whether this year tops the 218-incursion record is an open question, not a prediction. What I can say is that the cost of finding out the hard way is now well documented: 14 days in prison, $156,000 in restitution, and a criminal record, for a flight that took less time than reading this article.

Source: ABC4 Utah

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.